ARAPUNI DAM.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 24 June 1930, Page 3

ARAPUNI DAM.

STATEMENT BY MR SEMPLE. (By Telegraph —Press Association.) HAMILTON, Monday. Arapuni to-day presents a scene of desolation. The whole of the 250 men employed there were suspended last Friday, subsequent to an inspection of the works. Mr R. Semple, M.P., stated: “It is amazing, to say the least of it, that alleged competent engineers should erect a power-house and install machinery and then sink a shaft to explore the foundations.’ 7 The shaft is now down 25 feet and the bottom is filled with water. It pierces ground which, according to Mr Semple, is nothing more than pumice. This, he said, supported the assertion of Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth, that there was no other foundation than soft pumice.

The present foundations of the powerhouse consisted of a concrete slab resting on this pumieeous underlayer. It was a iloating foundation, while doubtless, said Mr Semple, this heavy block of concrete, which, he understood was 15 feet thick, would, with the tremendous overweight, have a tendency to sink vertically. The slightest tilt would throw the machinery out of alignment and difficulties would arise. Although vibration had existed in the No. 1 turbine for many weeks before the crack in the spillway was discovered, no apparent cause could be assigned for it. Levels had been taken and apparently the • machine was perfectly true. The trouble had been most puzzling and worrying to the engineers on the job, who in no way could account for it. To Mr SempleSs mind, this trouble was undoubtedly in the

foundations. In fact, the whole of the troubles appeared to him to be due to the scheme being ill-conceived in the first place, and then to trying to construct works through a shivering mass of volcanic ash. The vibrations) of the machinery had set up earth movements the extent of which was yet unknown. No one could tell where the trouble was going to end. If, as a result of the present exploration, it was found that the foundations were wrong, he did not think anything could be done to put them right. The only thing, under such circumstances, would be, he thought, to shift the power house to another site. When Armstrongs were excavating the foundations for the powerhouse, they struck an underground stream which seemed beyond

their power to stem, except perhaps at prohibitive cost. They, of course, were only contractors and had taken it for granted that everything was right for them to proceed and that the New Zealand Public Works Department had done all the necessary exploration work. They refused to proceed with the work, however, unless the Government took responsibility for the job. Eventually they relinquished the contract altogether, and the Public Works engineers stepped in and said, “We will show them what we can do,’’ but the Public Works Department had behind it the resources of the country. Expense was not counted. They poured into the hole through which water rushed and llooded the excavations, no less, ho was told, than 1500 tons of liquid concrete. This blocked the hole up but did not dry up the water, which was still underneath and doubtless would find another outlet in time.

A published statement from Wellington, that Messrs Semple and McKean represent the New Zealand Workers’ Union was not collect., said Mr Semple. They went there to gather firsthand information so that they would bo able to know, when Parliament met, how to vote upon any proposed expenditure of further sums of money on the Arapuni scheme. While there they inspected the tunnels and had given a frank and honest opinion on what they saw.