D. —1A

1930. NEW ZEALAND.

ARAPUNI HYDRO-ELECTRIC-POWER WORKS (STATEMENT BY THE HON. W. B. TAVERNER, MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS, REGARDING THE).

Laid on the Table of the House of Representatives by Leave.

In accordance with the undertaking I have recently given to the press, I desire to make the following statement to the House regarding Arapuni : — At about 4 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, the 7th instant, water was noticed on the floor of the battery-room at the back of the power-house, having found its way in through the power-house drainage system. On the officer at the pumphouse end of the penstock structure near the spillway weir being communicated with, he found a crack approximately 2 in. wide between the end of the spillway proper and the structure adjoining same. Other water was found issuing from a number of points on the cliff behind the power-house. Wellington was immediately advised, and some of the principal officers of the Department left immediately for the scene, arriving the same night. In the meantime a crack had been traced on the surface of the ground running from the, one first observed through the hill between the old gorge of the Waikato River and the present headrace. This crack was not continuous, but was observed in a number of places all trending much in the same way and ending a short distance below the Falls where the water from the headrace drops back on to the Waiteti Flat. Wherever these cracks existed in alluvial ground they disappeared during the first rain which fell afterwards. After observing the flows through the hill and the movements, it was decided that it was advisable to lower the water so that it would not overflow the spillway, and thus give an opportunity for better examination. Accordingly the gates in the diversion tunnel were opened, and by the following morning the spillway ceased to overflow, and further examination was made. In the meantime I had departed for Arapuni, and with the engineers made a thorough inspection ; and, after carefully going over all the evidences of earth movement, a decision was arrived at that the water should be drawn down unfcil the headrace was dry. This was done, the lowering of the water to this extent being accomplished by Sunday, the 15th instant. On the water leaving the headrace and. forebay it was found that the cracks already observed ran approximately on the lines of the headrace for several hundred feet farther than had been observed on the dry land, and the drainage water was disappearing down these cracks. As the water in the headrace lowered during this week the leaks through the hillside at the back of the power-house and

I—D. la.