£80,000,000 DAM

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19597, 8 June 1935, Page 14 (Supplement)

£80,000,000 DAM

The world’s greatest Irrigation scheme has been completed. When the sluices of the big Boulder Dam are closed they will stem the waters which roar down from the Grand Canyon of Colorado, U.S.A., and the dream of a quarter of a century will come true. As a result the American people arc looking forward to the time when 1000 square miles of the most arid and barren land in America will be supporting a population of 5,000,000. and be one of the wealthiest and most prosperous areas in the United States. The minds reels at the colossal figures Involved in the construction of the dam. The actual dam has cost £30,000,000. With the collateral works the total 'Cost Is £70,000,000. Finally it will be £80,000,000. ' The cost of the Panama Canal was only £72,000,000. The height of the dam is 750 feet —more than twice the height of the cross on the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Wodge of Solid Concreto. It forms a wedge of solid concrete, thicker than the average frontage of a modern block of llats, thrown across a gorge 2000 feet wide. Four million four hundred thousand cubic yards of concrete were used In its construction. The vast reservoir is 115 miles long and covers an area of 145,000 acros. It Is estimated that it will tales three years to fill. When it is full there will bo enough water in it to submerge 32,500,000 acres of land to a depth of one foot. That is approximately the area of the whole of England. Apart from the Irrigation scheme, plans have been made to establish hydro-electric plant capable of producing 1,000,000 units of horsepower. ■Compared with' the Boulder Dam the schemes for hydro-electric production and water conservation in Britain are insignillcant. The Lochaber electricity scheme in the Scottish highlands cost £5,000,000, with a plant capable of producing 50,000 horse-power. The Shannon scheme in Ireland cost £3,000,000. The Galloway scheme, which is Lo pour electric power inlo the north of England, cost £3,000,000. Australian Schomos. Australian schemes will scarcely compare even with the English ilg-

SO RIDICULOUS. Sj'ot (to college son). “Dinna keep on savin,' 'Take it from me,’ It sounds so ridiculous."

More Costly Than Panama Canal. World’s Biggest Irrigation Scheme. Will Take Three Years to Fill.

ures. Precise costs are not available; but when one considers that the area of the Commonwealth is 3,153,041 square miles, and the total area irrigated Is 680,853 acres, about one three-thousandth of the area; and the latest Commonwealth Year-book figures are that to the beginning of 1930 thirty-three districts had cost £13,000,000 our great Irrigation Ideas are In infancy by comparison with the grandly conceived American work. Seven States in America will benefit by the completion of the scheme. They are: Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and California. The area which will be affeoted by the Irrigation scheme is almost devoid of human life. It Is a country given Over to lizards, horned toads, solitary prospectors, and mirages. Yet the Colorado basin is immensely rich in precious metals and valuable minerals. Plans In Every State. Every State in the area has plans for more fertile acres, more dams, and more reservoirs. Sou Hi California plans to doublo her agricultural population in live years. Nevada dreams of groat mills and factories hung on the precipitous walls of Its canyons. Another gigantic dam has been begun at Grand Coulee on the Columbia River, in the State of Washington. Is is estimated that when the scheme is completed the cdst will be £35,000,000. The Coulee Dam schemo Is part of the “ New Deal." “We aro going to see with our own eyes," said President Roosevelt, when he inaugurated it, “ electricity and power made so cheap that they will become standard articles of use, not only for manufacturing and agriculture, but for every home." Just what effect this is likely to have on industry and production provides food for ample speculation. At present many American ranches are worked 24 hours a day, harvesting crops at night with the aid of floodlights; thanks to great natural reservoirs of power they have been able to use electrical machinery on n tremendous scale. If eloelricily becomes yet cheaper, and the desert is made to blossom like the rose—l lion (lie Slates will hold a key position in world prodnelion, and the Industries of every country may feel (lie repercussion.

SHE COULDN'T SAY. I Angry Diner: Look: There’s a lly in niy soup. What, does il me,in? Waitress: Sorry, sir. I’m a waitress —not a fortune teller,