Cheap Electric Power.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXX, Issue X, 7 March 1903, Page 675

Cheap Electric Power.

NEW ZEALAND OF THE FUTURE. A GLOWING ACCOUNTWELLINGTON, March 3Mr Edmond Allo, the Swiss electrical expert, is now in town, and has been sounded by a press interviewer with reference to the recently telegraphed statement from Auckland to the effect that he had said that Auckland city and other parts of the North Island could be abundantly supplied with power from the easily harnesed Huka Falls. Mr Allo stated that after inspecting the Huka Falls, in co-operation with two Government engineers, he found that the falls are capable of giving in a dry season, and so taking the water at its lowest, a safe co-efficient of 39,000 horsepower, with very small initial cost for hydraulic power and installation expenses. This is really the easiest power to be worked that he has come across, because there are no technical difficulties to be overcome. This 39,000 horsepower can easily be directed into four quarters, one of which would go north to Auckland and Thames, one south to Wellington and provinces, one to Taranaki, and one to the Napier district. This power would also yield the energy necessary to run all the North Island railways by electricity. The present steam railways of the North Island use 4000 h.p. Increase this horse-power to 9000 for railways, and there would then be 10,000 h.p. for distribution among the several industrial centres in the North Island. There are a great many industries that can utilise electrical power with greater economy compared with the steam power they are using now, the more so as coal has to be reckoned at £2 5/ to £2 10/ a ton. Steam horsepower has got to be reckoned as costing £7 to £7 10/ a year, allowing for boilers and attendance of the best grade. Without wishing to go at present into the cost at which an electrical horsepower will be able to be delivered to industry, he would say that at the least 33 per cent, could be economised by industrial power absorbers, or, in other words, that electrical power could be delivered at from £4 to £6 per horsepower per year, according to the annual quantity absorbed, that is to say, the greater the amount absorbed, the greater proportionately would be the discount in the cost of power. It stands to reason that, with this difference in initial power prices, a great many industries can spring up and start at a fair competition with foreign competitors. ELECTRICAL RAILWAYS. Referring to the theme of electrical power on the railways and the order received by his company from the Swiss Government to equip one of their main and most loaded lines with electrical power, Mr Allo said that Switzerland is in the same predicament as New Zealand, in that coal costs from £2 to £2

10/ a ton, because of the long railway carriage and high freights and the expenses of transit. New Zealand can therefore be very well compared with Switzerland. Before electrical water power was used in Switzerland all industry except hand watchmaking was practically nil. Since electrical water power has come forward, say, during the last twenty years, any amount of industries have sprung up all through the country. He saw, therefore, no objection whatever to New Zealand being in every way compared with Switzerland, the more so as New Zealand has any amount of minerals that could be used for industrial purposes, whereas Switzerland has to import all her raw material and minerals from foreign countries. Yet cheap water power enables her people to stand this expense and compete with the world. ELECTRICITY FOR SMALL TOWNS. Besides this large power, which he considers should be taken only for electrical railway purposes and to the large industrial centres, any number of small falls in the country are adaptable for lighting and motive powers for small townships. He had already inspected the available water power which may give light and power to the towns of Inglewood and Opunake, and he has in his preliminary reports proved that it will be a good investment for these towns to enter on the schemes. Thera are numerous townships in New Zealand that could very profitably have their electric light, both for public and private purposes, besides selling power for small industries, and they could make a good thing out of it. The fact has been proved all over the world that nt>thing pushes a township ahead like electricity, be it in the shape of light, tramways, or power. ELECTRIC TRACTION. Questioned as to the statement recently made that the movement for electrical traction on the railways was confined to the branch lines and had not been proposed in connection with the main lines of the railway, Mr Allo said this was a misconception. He considered that the railways could easily be run electrically at forty miles an hour. Asked whether there would be at the end of each line of conductors (assuming no power was supplied en route) sufficient demand for power (after competition with coal) to make a profit, Mr Allo .thought there would be, but he did not know what the demand would be, nor had he yet worked out the minimum horse power that must be sold to bring in a return on investment. He was putting estimates of the cost in hand. In any case industry would follow the power. This had been the case with the cheap electrical water power in Switzerland, and it would be so in New Zealand. Though the Swiss manufacturers paid higher wages than the German, the cheap power derived from a mountainous country enabled them to compete with the article produced with steam power on the flat lands of Germany. The whole of the power should be transmitted on an electrical threephase systom, which was the best for engineering purposes. The line loss from Huka to Auckland (160 miles) would not exceed 5 per cent.