WAIRARAPA POWER BOARD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 10 September 1924, Page 6

WAIRARAPA POWER BOARD.

MONTHLY MEETING. (Special to “Daily Times.”) The monthly meeting of the Wiurara»a Electric Power Board was held a Carterton on Tuesday, Mr. J. C. Cooper presiding. Others present were: Mcssis D MeLarhlan, R. J. King, T V. Moore, W. Howard Booth, W. Benton, M. A. Hutton, W. A. lorns. ENGINEER’S REPORT. The Engineer reported as follows: Maintenance. —The whole of the lines in service have been patrolled on two occasions during the month and Severn minor troubles discovered and rectified. Trouble was experienced on tour occasions by hooked pieces of wire being thrown up on bare conductors, three on the Kent street, Carterton, transfoimer circuit and one on Swamp road. Transformer fuses blew in the former and the 11,000 volt Kelman sw'iteh opened m the latter cessation of .supply being only a few minutes. Sections in Carterton were cut out on three days to allow street lighting conductors to be run on 11,000-volt poles. Apart from the usual Sunday stops there has been no cessation of supply during the month. One faulty 11,000 volt insulator was renewed at Waioh-ine corner. Construction. —Battersea line is completed and is now in service; Grevtown street lighting has been completed and is now in service. Carterton street lighting has been commenced, and weather permitting, should go into serviec at the end of the week. Two further street lighting lamps in Lansdowne have been erected and put into service, Tho Waihakeke line is nearing completion. Low tension conductors have been erected on Maroa road and put into service. The Kaiwaiwai transformer and low tension wiring has been erected and put into service. Transformers, .switchgear, service lines, motors and wiring at Mr. Wall’s flaxinill have been erected and will probably be put into service to-morrow. Mr. Jackson has poled the Hikanui road and poling and -wiring of Pihautea road down to the crossing at Pukeo. The Board’s gangs have completed the Lower . Valley road dowrn to the river crossing opposite the point attained by Mr. Jackson. Only a few minor details such as the supply to P. and T. of earth date, etc., remain to be finished before those stretches of line can be put into service. A portion of Martinborough town area has been re-

poled and low r tension lines have been ? erected under existing 11,000 volt lines from the Catholic church to the power house; 400 volt lines in Phillips roads are erected and in service. Three 10 h.p. motors have been supplied and erected for Messrs. G. 11. Perry, Masterton, and are now in service. 11,000-volt lines, Brooklyn and Victoria roads, Dalefield. have been completed and put into service.; 400-volt lines, Anderson’s line, has been completed and put into service. The transformer at Gray’s on the East Taratahi road lias been erected. Poling has been done at Kempton street and Humphries street, Gre.vtown. Installations have been completed or contracts signed for same as under: Masterton 614, Carterton 378, Grevtown 112, Featherston 20S, Martinborough 30, re-conditioning 81; total, 1423. Consumers connected to the Board’s mains nre as under: Masterton 592, Carterton 334, Grevtown 54, Featherston 158, Martinborough 243; total 1421. Sequence of work for ensuing month: i Jackson's.—Complete Hikanui and Pihnutea roads, continue Kahautara road to Pearce’s, erect Parson’s road, Tawalia and service to Burch; run service to Harris, Senr., and Parker, if required. Xiindstrom’s gang.—Fifteen services, Featherston; Yule, South Featherston, house and shed; Baston, South Featli•erston, three sheds; complete East coast .Toad; complete Underhill road; re-or-ganisation. Martinborough. Carterton Gang.—Complete Waihakeke road; run

low tension to Harvey; wiring Kempton and Cotter street, Greytown; services to Mrs. Lyford, Tauherenikau; line Ward’s Line, Bid will’s, Tilson’s. Masterton Gang.—Complete Carterton lighting; 1 complete Masterton street lighting; install telephone line to ■upper power house: combined line; Homebush; Manaia road. HOUR AR AU DEVELOPMENT. Mr. H. R. Climie, consulting engineer, submitted the following monthly report on the Kourarau development:— Dam.—Mr. Gray, the contractor for this work, has made steady progress during the month. The embankment is now high enough to retain all the water ' required for some time to meet peak loads. During the month the first flood for twelve months occurred and overtopped the dam, but without doing any damage. Tlie Public Works Department have approved of the design for the spillway. Tunnel.—The contract for the upper tunnel will be completed in about a fortnight. It is proposed to excavate site for surge tower and to commence laying the concrete pipes in the tunnel. About half-way through the tunnel an impervious clay stratum about nine .inches thick and dipping towards the swamp was encountered. Since piercing this statum, the tunnel which previous-

ly had been very dry, became very wet. " If it is possible to junction up to this stratum with the cut off wall a largo dam in the swamp could reasonably be expected to be water tight. Plant.—Foundation plans have just been received from the manufacturers which will enable an early start to be made with the power house. It is proposed to construct this by day labour. Tenders, however, will be called for the surge tower. The plant and switchgear will be shipped next month. It appears that the date of completion of the steel pipe line wilt determine the time when the station can be brought into beneficial use. COMPLETING RETICULATION. With regard to the estimate for completing the reticulation of the inner area controlled by the Board, the engineer reported;Lines remaining to be completed if

revenue guarantee bo forthcoming, and estimated costs, are: Opaki road, three miles, £.810: Johnston road, Homebush, 1-1 miles, £2SO; Upper Opaki road (combined!, 51 miles, £415; Matahiwi, 51 miles, £1485; Upper Plain, Kaituna, 51 miles, £1485; sub-station, Waingawa, to Kemball’s..,2} miles, £760; Kemball’s to Chester road. 2 : } miles, £580; Chester road, 6 miles, £1620; Tc Whiti settlement, 3 miles' £7SS; Taumata Island, 3 miles, £825; Papawni road, 31 miles, £145; Fabian and Cross roads, 4 miles, £1080; Pihautea-Lake View, 6 miles, £1620; Underhill-Mat arawn, 6 miles, £1800: total. £15,500. Manaia road, 3 miles, if light lines £BIO, if heavy lines £1030; Tauhercnikau, Elgars, .11 miles, £4OO.

Martinborough. —Lines totalling 1031 chains w.ill mostly have to be re-poled, and the labour entailed will be heavy if service is not to be appreciably interrupted. Further, the expenditure will depend upon the passing or otherwise of the present braided aluminium cable by the P. and T. and Public Works Deparaments. borne portion of the lines and the main transformer are already erected, but require changing over, and the D.C. cables dismantling. If the Board is allowed to utilise the whole of the present cable I estimate the cost of completing the work at £2350, if not, at, £4OOO. There are 227 house services that will require re-organisation. Many have no fuses and nearly all are run under instead of over P. and T. lines, and the insulation is nearly every case is faulty—the cost being estimated at £3-10. Street lighting to 42 lights lias to be installed at an estimated cost of £lO O'S. Consolidation. —A good deal of consolidation work in areas already reticulated remains to be done, such as running house services as they occur, and provision of earths which wil confoim to Public Works regulations, etc., and it would not be safe to estimate this work under £2500 for the ensuing 12 months. In addition, supply of material to place all existing P. and T. extra high tension crossings will cost approximately £2OOO. Transport expenses for the ensuing 12 months cannot be placed lower than £ISOO. The work of completing the Upper Kourarau development is estimated at £IO,OOO. The erection and completion of the switchgear and connections at the P.W.D. station at Cornwall road and auto-gear at Kourarau is estimated at £250. Hie installation of the telephone line, Kourarau camp to Upper Development, is estimated at £75. With regard to the P. and T. Department requirements. A sum must be sot aside for such service as erecting guard wires, laying Henley cable, erecting special top cross-arms, etc., as this is estimated at £BOO for tho ensuing 12 months. The manager is appending a statement showing approximately value of material on hand for completing this work, and the commitments of the Board. RETICULATION COST.

The manager submitted the following report:— The Board’s Engineer has submitted a report showing the cost of completing the reticulation of the inner area. If all the material to carry out this work had to be purchased the cost would be approximately £29,603, made up as follows: —y avion 3 roads, according to schedule submitted by engineer £16,930; Martinborough reticulation if aluminium replaced by copper, £4000; Martinborough service connections, £340; Martinborough street lights, £100S; material for high tension crossings already erected, £2000; material for future crossings and service connections, £2500; erection of switchgear at Cornwall road sub-station, £250; telephone line, Kourarau, £75; engineering and contingencies, £2500; total, £29,603. The Board ras in stock a colderable amount of material for line construction work, the approximate value of which is, £26,830, made up as follows: Poles, £13,330; wire, £7000; transformers, £3600; polo iron work, £500; insulators and pins, £1800; scutching gear, £600; total, £26,830. Contracts have been let and will have to be met within the next three months for material td’rthe value of £13,920, made up as follows: —Copper wire, £10,050; bolts and straps, etc., £1000; transformers, £1970; tallow-wood crossarms, £400; jarrah transformer platforms, £500; total, £13,920. In addition to this, lead covered cable to the value of approximately £2OOO for high tension crossings has to be purchased. It is not possible to state exactly the Board’s position with regard to the balance of the reticulation without making a complete survey of the roads to be reticulated to determine accurately and in detail what material is required to carry out this work. Apparently from the above figures, taking into consideration the material on hand and on order; when the whole of the latter is delivered there will be a considerable surplus of some items as far as the requirements of the inner area is concerned.

What docs demand immediate consideration is the Board’s commitments for the next twelve months, and the making of the necessary arrangements to provide for payment of same. In many cases it is necessary to estimate what certain expenditure will be but the following will give a fairly close indication of the position: Balance in Construction Loan at bank as at August 31st, 1924, less unpresented cheques, £5531 10s; balance of £IOO,OOO loan payable by the Government Life Insurance, £20,000.

Estimated Amount of Commitments. —Kourarau No. 1 dam and spillway, spiihvay, £2.‘!00; Kourarau No. 2 scheme Jlll'/OO; building, Masterton, and fitting, .tl7°or linesmen’s cottages, £3450; office building and furniture, £4750; trie] hone crossings on lines erected, l £2d00: contracts, copper wire £10,050, bolts and strap £IOOO, transformers £PJ7'J, tallow wood £IOO, jarrali £SOO, Bilov for-motors, r.c., £2200; sundry retentions on completed contract and accounts (wing, £2000; balance interest payable on loan, £7000; wages, salaries, payable out of loan, £5000; sundry material not in stock or on order, £1000; Martinborough reticulation if aluminium replaced by copper, £1700; Martinborough street lighting and service connections, £1350; transport, £600; total, £58,870; less - £25,531 10s 9d, £33,438 9s 3d. The Board was authorised by the poll of ratepayers to raise a loan of £260,000. Of this, £240,000 has been raised and £220,000 received, leaving the balance of £20,000 mentioned in tlie above statement still to be paid over. The Board has accordingly authority to raise a further £20,000 to complete the original loan and in addition a further £26,000 being ten per cent, additional on the original loan, can be raised without any further authority from tlie ratepayers. This makes the ultimate position as follows: Balance original loan, £20,000; ten per cent on original loan, £26,000; balance as shown above, £35,258; first year’s interest on £26,000, £1820; total £35,258; £46,000, less £35,258, £10,742 By exercising due care and carrying out only essential works, the Board should be able to complete the reticulation of the inner area without having to go to the ratepayers for another loan. The following are the details of

capital expenditure up to the 31st March, 1924:—Land, £1325 4s 9d; headworks dam, £3221 19s lid; scour tank, £3lB 7s 4d; intake, £4lB 9s ad; surge tower £1638 16s S<l; pipe lines, £20,777 7s 2d: power house building, £2126 17s lid; generating plant, £4330 0s 3d; access and telephone, £l9l 18s lid; switch gear at power house £I3IS 3s Sd; main transmission supply lines, £27,655 8s lid; primary distribution, £26,706 11s 7d; secondary distribution £1677 2s; lightning arrestors, £6OB Ss 9d; clearing trees, £l7O 5s 7d: alterations, telegraph lines, £1169 lls Id; public lighting, £2820 12.5: tools, equipment and ears, etc., £2846 16s sd; meters, £653 5s lid; buildings, offices and stores, £3924 18s Cd; house property, £1000; primary expenses and surveys on Wnioliine scheme £;>2B4 15s Id, on Kourarau, £13,719 Ss; interest and sinking fund, £8517 16s Id; sundry, camp equipment, temporary testing set, etc., £2116 .18s 3d; total, £132,539 10s sd. The estimate of £260,000 in accordance with which the original loan was raised was made up as follows: —Transmission lines and sub-stations, £35,000; reticulation inner area, £130,000; purchase existing plant, £10,000; standby plant, £20,000; preliminary expenses, £5000; land, building and equipment, £10,000; additional for outer area, £30,000; interest and sinking fund, £20.000; total, £260,000.

I have already submitted inquiries to the various lending institutions to see if it is possible to raise at a reasonable rate of interest the £20,000 of the original £260,000 loan. —Adopted.