WATER POWER.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8016, 16 April 1918, Page 4

WATER POWER.

POSSIBILITIES OF WAIKAREMOANA. WHY HESITATE? In a contributed article to the “Post,*' a correspondent, who favors tlie Waikareinoana scheme of hydroelectric power, dilates on the difficulties recently experienced by a party of Parliamentarians and others who visited tile lake in had weather:— “But not even the discomforts of such a journey as that made on the invitation of the Hydro-Electric League could lessen to any great degree tin* pleasure or the value of a visit to and examination of this very wonderful and richly potential source of electrical energy,” the writer states. “One may he pardoned for saying at the outset that the power now running to waste at the outlet of the ‘Sea of Rippling Water’ is unique, hut only in New Zealand hut anywhere in the world—not even excepting the great sources of Norway. “In the United States huge sums of money had to he expended before the power now produced at the Palls of Niagara could he obtained. Tunnels had to he driven through the rock and other preliminary developmental work performed before I lie electrical energy became available. But at Bake Waikareinoana Nature herself has done tin l work, has given of her best and has been offering, so to say, with open hand, the means whereby we may provide all the power necessary to afford electrical energy to the greater portion of the North Is land. There are those who are of opinion, and they are men competent to express that opinion, that the whole Island may he energised from this great natural source of power. “The pity is—and it is always so whenever a great public work is under consideration —that local demands are made and will persist; petty calculations come into the count. Provincial and city jealousies also obtrude themselves, and the greater issue is clouded. If our public, men will he wise, if the North Island is to he benefited to the fullest possible extent by the adoption of a scheme that will revolutionise our industrial, and largely re-model our social, life, then the Waikareiiiouna power must be considered from every point, and local schemes and local jealousies must be brushed on one side, ft must be admitted that this will be no easy task.”

BIGGER FALL THAN NIAGARA. The writer continues:—The greatest fall, it is understood, at Niagara, is somewhere about 260 feel. The fall to the proposed power-house at Waikaremoana would be (100 feet. And not only so; if it were necessary another, and yet another, fall of 000 feet could be obtained on the river as it foams and frets and leaps seaward. Truly, the potential power may bit said to be illimitable.

From Niagara, the energy is carried a distance of 000 miles, and is there! effective. From Lake Waikareinoana, the greatest distance of travel would not be more than 210 miles, as the Crow Hies. But in order to avoid the great delay and greater expense of construction of service roads, the existing road lines could be used, and their improvement would not be costly. The distance thus added to the length of the service-lines would not be more than would carry our greatest distance to anything like 1100 miles. So that disposes of one of the alleged dilliculties.

Why, then, it is asked, have we hesitated so long; why halted between two or more opinions; why deliberately refused the bounty of Mother Nature for all these years? There is an explanation that may be given later. THE LOCALITY DESCRIBED.

Let the reader imagine that lie is standing at a spot some 2000 odd feel above sea level, looking down upon a marvellously beautiful lake, some 2.'i square miles in extent, and in depth from 800 to 1000 feet. The great watershed which surrounds the lake is forest-clad, even down to the shores. The whole scene is very noble in its grandeur, and entrancing, too, in its beauty. Then change your position, and, passing by the overflow (please don’t confuse thin with the outlet), clamber down into a huge canyon, and see that out through the earth and plunging into a rocky gulch, there comes the outflow from the lake, rushing, flashing, roaring along in foaming- cataracts —a mighty torrent of cascading water. Out through a naturally-formed tunnel this great forces flashes into tin l sunlight, and thunders on its way to form a great river Mowing to the sea! It is a never-failing, never varying, tumbling mass —calling, calling to us to come and use the means (o the end of util motion of not less than 160,000 horsepower, to set and keep in motion every wheel of existing or future industry—a never-ending source of energy for light and power for every city, town, village, and farm in the North Island.

TO SUPER,SEDE COAL. But now from the mythological to the actual, from romance to reality: All men are aware that, at best, tlucoal measures of the earth are a rapidly diminishing quantity, that al ready many ships have to be freighted so as to carry the specially needed coal of a particular quality to supply the already too heavy demands made upon it by manufacturers and shipowners. At the best, these coal supplies are a costly means of generation of power, and not only so, but a cause of disfigurement to city, town, and household. We have the smoke-stack, the din and the dirt, and superadded \vc have periodic dislocation in tin; shape of disputes, strikes, and lockouts. Nature, through science, offers us the way out, and a much better way. Let us imagine for a moment or two the necessary machinery installed at Waikareinoana, the illimitable power now running to waste harnessed up, tlie transmission lines complete; the grime and the noise, the smell and the smoke, the discomfort and the heavy toil eliminated; and in their place silent, clean, efficient electrical energy. Think of our cities, when the reek and the dirt are gone, when the work in all the hives of industry and in the home is accomplished by me/pis of the power which men call electricity. Then, truly, may we begin to reach out towards the goal of the city beautiful. This is not the idle dream of the idealist. It is a practical proposal, delayed only through prejudice, narrowness of vision, and selfishness.

POLITICAL PRESSURE. What is needed at this time is pressure upon and by the people’s representatives. If the claims of the County of Waikareinoana he set aside and the North Island is robbed of its advantages, the fault will lie with those who keep one eye on the town pump and the other on the number of votes to be had one way or the other. “One way or the other.” There is the hint for the league. The Wai karemo nmi power would have been harnessed long ago had the public at large hut realised its surpassing magnitude. But, like many another rich offering of Nature, and because of the stunted vision of succeeding Governments, this great source of energy was held in isolation, hidden away from the people; and even now, when the people are at last awakening to the facts, there is a disposition on the part of many public men to minister in this matter to local prejudices. The lake can only he reached after a long, tiresome, and sometimes perilous journey. The so-called road from Napier to Wairoa is often impassable —always, after heavy rain; the bar at the mouth of the Wairoa river is frequently unworkable; the road from Wairoa to the lake, with the exception of a few miles, is still unmet ailed, still in the “bullock-waggon stage.” Given a metalled road, and not only would the lake he within an easy day’s journey by motor from Napier, hut a whole countryside that has been disgracefully neglected in the past would he hugely benefited.

THE WORK AND THE WAR. Just ft word here about the excuse for not proceeding with the scheme: the war. It is mere subterfuge. Granted the machinery and material cannot he had for the power-house and transmission lines; hut what of the road to the site of the power-house, along which the heavy machinery will have to he carted? What of the preparation of the site itself? What of all the preliminary work which farseeing men would commence to do now if we are not to wait years after the wnr is over before taking advantage of our golden opportunities? All these things can and should hi l done — if we will he in earnesl. If not, well, then let the men with the minor schemes have their way; Id money he needlessly and heedlessly expended on wlmt, by comparison with the greater scheme, can only lx; called makeshifts, and may too truly become mere mis'll Is.