AT ARAPUNI.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18157, 23 October 1930, Page 8

AT ARAPUNI.

STRIPPED AND DESERTED. WORK AT A STANDSTILL, PLACE DENUDED OF LIFE. (By Telegraph—Special to Times.) PUTARURU, Thursday. Arapunl still stands stripped and deserted, like a gaunt skeleton of a former glory, bleaching / in the weather. The place seems denuded of life, and except for an ocoaslonal scurrying figure battling against the wind on the upper ramparts, no animation Is observed. What rough preliminary work It was considered might be necessary should any one of the alternative schemes suggested by Professor Hornell be adopted was completed some weeks ago. Since then everything has been at a standstill.

Work that was then undertaken was of a nature that would be of use in any event. The bed of the headrace has been cleaned out to a depth of six or seven feet, and the weighty overhanging hank above the diversion tunnel intake on the upside of the dam has been battered back to obviate the danger of a fall of rock at any time blocking the tunnel entrance. It will also serve the purpose of giving a clean face to work on should it be decided to construct a second emergency tunnel... Two of the four investigation tunnels through the ridge that separates the headrace from the river have been completed, and a handful of men is still at work blasting further into the bowels of the earth in the other two. One of these, close to the river’s edge on the up-side of the power-house, is reached by spiderylike perpendicular ladders down the face of the cliff. This tunnel has been driven in for a distance of 600 feet, and will be connected with certain of the other tunnels. When linked up they will form a drainage system for future rainwater percolation and for any possible leakage from the headrace. No Work at Power-house. No work other than bare maintenance is proceeding at the powerhouse. Whether the cause of the vibration in one of the dynamos which had been worrying the engineering staff for some weeks prior to the recent trouble has been discovered and eliminated cannot be ascertained until the water is again turned through the turbines, which is not likely to occur for at the very least 12 months. All the gear connected with the dismantled ropeway which formerly conveyed gravel for concreting the dam twelve miles is piled up a bank near the «dam and has recently received a coat of paint as if in readiness for recommissioning. Several large stacks of timber suitable for concreting work stand above the falls. The river is running rather high and is seventeen feet deep below the power-house, which brings it to within three feet of the power-house platform. There are now probably fewer men at work at Arapuni than at any time since the scheme commenced.

Start on New Scheme. It is -anticipated in some quarters that a serious start on one of Professor Honiell's alternative schemes will be made at the beginning of November, and that there will he no let-up over the Christmas holidays. The edict hy the Minister of Public Works of June 7, closing the mouths of all the employees, has not been countermanded, and officials on the job are as close as oysters. It is probable that members of the Civil Institute of Engineers, at Auckland, which will visit Hamilton waterworks to-morrow', will proceed to Arapuni.