CHIEF HYDRO ENGINEER IN N.Z. RESIGNS TO GO TO AUSTRALIA

Wanganui Chronicle, 16 May 1950, Page 5

CHIEF HYDRO ENGINEER IN N.Z. RESIGNS TO GO TO AUSTRALIA

AUCKLAND, Last Night (P.A.)— Mr. W. A. Bloodworth, chief designing hydro engineer of the Ministry of Works, has handed in his resignation to take up a position with an Australian State electricity authority. The Government will thus be without the services of the man who has been in charge of designing nearly all the Dominion’s major electric projects in the last decade. The hydro-electric designing staff which the American expert, Mr. J. L. Savage, recently said needed to be expanded, lost its senior mechanical engineer, Mr. H. Sunley. to a private firm in Australia in February. It was stated by the Ministry of Works in Wellington today, that Mr. Bloodworth’s resignation had been received but had yet. to go to the Public Service Commission. It was expected (hat. the usual three months’ notice would apply. While the exact post, to which Mr. Bloodworth will go was not revealed, it was stated he was not going to the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority. Mr. Bloodworth, who is 36 years of age, has had major responsibility in the designing of the following hydro-electrical works: Piripaua and Kaitawa generating stations at Waikaremoana, extensions to Tuai (Waikaremoana). and Arapuni, Karapiro, Maraetai, Whakamaru, and the South Island stations at Highbank, Tekapo, Cobb River, and Roxburgh. He also designed the control gates at Lake Taupo and the siphons at Waikaremoana. A son of the Hon. T. Bloodworth, M.L.C., of Auckland, he was educated at the Auckland Grammar School and at Auckland and Canterbury University Colleges. After early experience with the Public Works Department and other employers, h*» took up an appointment with the Fletcher Construction Co., Ltd., and was engaged on stetfl frame design and supervision. In 1938 he joined the hydro-electric branch of the Public Works Department and has continued in the field of hydraulic structure design. He was sent on a five months’ tour of the United States and Canada in 1947 to study modern construction methods. Mr. Bloodworth was awarded the Fulton Gold Medal for a paper pre-j sented to the New Zealand Institution i of Engineers in 1948. In addition to bo-1 ing Bachelor of Engineering, he holds, the qualifications of A.M.I.C.E. and, A.M.N.Z.I.E. In an effort to build up designing staff engineers have been sought overseas by the Ministry of, Works. Some appointments have been made and men are in several cases on, their way.