LAKE COLERIDGE WORKS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16034, 27 January 1920, Page 10

LAKE COLERIDGE WORKS.

Pour years ago, when the public of Canterbury gave evidence of its appreciation of the benefits of the supply of electrical power from Lake Coleridge, the Public Works Department placed orders in Britain for the necessary pipe lines and power-house machinery to increase the capacity of the generating station from 6000 to 9000 k.w. During the war period the Imperial Government stopped all work on the contracts, as it required the contractors to carry out war orders on its behalf. With the armistice it was hoped to have received early deliver)", but unfortunately various troubles in Britain have interfered and in consequence the manufacture of a large portion of the machinery is not yet completed, although the Department has agreed to meet the contractors in every possible way by increasing the pi'ice to cover additional labour costs. Owing to the coal shortage the demand on the existing plant, which increased rapidly from the beginning of operations, has recently become still more acute, with the result that the 6000 k.w. machines are already considerably overloaded, being now practically up to last winter’s maximum. This overload will become more serious when next winter’s demand arrives, and the officers of the Department have been compelled to decide definitely that it is unsafe to further increase the load until the new plant is installed at the generating station. All risk of accident to any of the existing machines through overload must be avoided at any cost, as such -would have the effect of permanently reducing the present output and cause inestimable loss to manufacturing concerns already connected to the plant, and to the community generally.