D.--IA.

Water-power available for Electrical Purposes in Westland.

Waimakaeiei. It has been proposed by Mr. A. D. Dobson, M. Inst. C.E., to use part of the Waimakariri water by a race starting from the lower gorge near Sheffield. The idea was to take part of the water without building any weir, as the configuration of the gorge appears likely to insure a constant flow of water against and past the cliff where the intake would be located. The conduit would be nearly five miles and a half long to get 86 ft. of fall. Somewhat less than 4,000 b.h.p. would be got by taking about a quarter of the low-water flow of the river. The cost for hydraulic works for this scheme would be very low, by Mr. Dobson's estimate. A low-water flow of the river was got by Mr. Dobson in August, 1899, and found to be 1,955 cubic feet per second. The gaugings were taken after watching the river for some time, and are therefore of value. The drainage-area above the gorge is 927 square miles. The length of the Alps drained is twenty-seven miles. The flow measured gives about 2-1 cubic feet per second per square mile, but part of the drainage-area is not likely to be any better than the Coleridge basin, and the strip of the river-basin lying along the eastern side of the Alps will be relatively the best. Bain-fall-records are available for some years at the Bealey. If the rainfall over the Waimakariri basin follows in a general way that at the Bealey, the year 1895 would be likely to have furnished a lower flow than 1899. The rainfall in those two years at the Bealey was 23-81 in. in 1895, and 50-46 in. in 1899, and there were some months of very low rainfall in the winter of 1895. It is therefore probable that 1895

20

["Heads of water = lowest quantity running luring year. No. Heads ! Height of in Nearest Town. Water. '. Feet. Direct Distance from nearebt Town. Horsepower. Locality. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1.4 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Coal Creek Upper Ahaura Valley Lake Brunner (Mitchell's) ... Lake Brunner Poerua Upper Teremakau Valley Jackson's... Inchbonnie Taipo Otira (Barrack Creek) Otira (Wesley's Creek) Lake Kanieri (Dorothy Falls) Hokitika River (Doctor's Creek) Hokitika River Upper Hokitika Upper Mikonui Tuke River, Mikonui Valley... 6 6 4 8 6 5 7 9 6 10 9 T 12 12 6 6 27 27 35 35 8 20 7 14 35 370 80 100 72 100 67 160 70 210 140 70 40 25 60 150 90 ' 70 60 60 40 30 110 1,209 Greymouth ... Ahaura Kumara „ ... a a Otira Hokitika Ross M. 5 18 15 11 18 27 21 13 12 04 2 14 8 9 11 7 9 11 9 10 14 12 15 17 19 202 29 73 39 45 42 131 38 191 114 45 44 27 33 82 220 172 191 191 29 54 70 1,539 a n a It " Kakapotahi a u ' ' ' Duffer's Creek, Waitaha Totara River Upper Callary Valley Kaiser Fritz Falls, Franz Josef Glacier Okarito a • •' Direct Distance from Coast. 15 8 12 10 14 14 20 15 14 13 10 8 7 7 17 21 22 23 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Balfour Valley Karangarua lt ... Makawiho Karangarua Upper Paringa Valley Upper Clark Valley Upper Macfarlane ... Haast Valley 70 7 6 14 7 33 20 16 25 10 30 35 20 7 45 25 20 15 40 85 90 370 80 40 70 50 450 115 90 1,115 400 350 70 80 60 800 254 54 49 471 51 120 127 73 1,023 104 245 3,548 727 222 286 182 109 1,091 It ' ' ' ' ' ' Staircase Valley ... 1! ' ' ' ' ' ' Turnbull Valley ... Lower Awatere Valley Waipara Valley a • • ■ Upper Arawata Valley