AN URGENT NEED

Waikato Independent, Volume XL, Issue 3691, 11 April 1940, Page 4

AN URGENT NEED

ACUTE SHORTAGE OF POWER FULL SURVEYS COMPLETED The need for a new power station to supplement the ; supply from Arapuni has been realised for some time, and recent statements concerning the increasing demands for electricity,, made it evident • that the Karapiro scheme could not be delayed much longer. The first inkling that a new station might be erected at Karapiro was gained in August, ; 1935, as a result of investigatidn made by The Waikato Independent. It was revealed that tests were being made on the river, but nothing of an official nature concerning the scheme was released until 1939.

The building of the power-house and dam will be of considerable importance to Cambridge, which is the nearest town to the proposed site. Many men will be employed, and no doubt a township similar to Arapuni will arise. More than four years' steady work took place at ArapUni before the plant was. in operation,-.,/Under present war, mated, that task of construction will extend over, perhaps, five or six years. With the need for electricity, increasing, the work may be speeded up by running extra shifts.

The Minister of Public Works' statement confirms the observations made in The Waikato Independent in 1935 that the lake formed at Karapiro would submerge Horahora A good deal of low-lying country near the river, including portions of the Cambridge-Rotorua main highway, would be submerged It is understood that the Maungatautari Bridge would be under water.

The site of the new station, which is known as the "Crow's Nest," has been subjected to exhaustive tests, the last of which were carried out early this year by Mr Norbert Modriniak, a geophysicist. Almost at the site of the dam a metal quarry operated for several years. This was closed down last year.