Failure breeds success

Situated high up among the hills of Teviot, Otago is an artificial lake. In olden days its site was known as the Dismal Swamp, but some 30-odd years ago the idea was conceived of converting it into a dam to conserve a continuous supply a water in the Teviot River for mining purposes. The ultimate failure of the search for the precious metal has paved the way for the success to-day of hydroelectricity and irrigation. To-day a great deal of the water is used for irrigation, and the remainder generates electricity for Roxburgh, Miller’s Flat, Cromwell and intermediate places. The day is not far distant when it will be linked up with the Waipori scheme. The water from the turbines is not wasted, for it is conducted over into a low-level race which irrigates Roxburgh East.

The more or less flat nature of the country around it will be understood when mention is made of the fact that an increase of but 2 feet in the height of the weir will serve to double the storage capacity. It would not be a matter of very great difficulty to double the height of the wall, for it has been built in a splendid situation at the commencement of a narrow gorge. The top of the wall is some 30 or 40 yards long and about 4ft wide on top. 

Money down the drain

Ratepayers have every reason to criticise severely the waste of their money caused by the attitude taken up by two of the local bodies with reference to the apportionment of the cost of the sewage reticulation on a portion of the reclaimed land. The exact point at issue was the definition of a ‘‘main sewer.’’ The Harbour Board contended that it was liable only for ‘‘main sewers,’’ and the Drainage Board claimed that all sewers and drains right up to the house fence came under the category of main sewers.

The Harbour Board twice rejected the offer of the Drainage Board to accept £16,000 in payment for the work done, and is now required to pay about £29.000, together with its not inconsiderable share of the legal expenses that were incurred. The scandal of the whole proceedings consists in this, however, that both bodies represent to a large extent the same constituents and that the public interest demanded that there should have been an avoidance of any course involving an expenditure that could be avoided. 

In a very real sense, some thousand pounds of the ratepayers’ money has been emptied down the sewers. — editorial

In custody

Bare-headed, with their fair hair waving in the gentle breeze, two sturdy little tots wandered far away from their home in the city yesterday morning. 

The eldest, a bonny girl of only a few summers, went on a pilgrimage, and her baby brother, a beautiful child about two years of age, toddled along with her. The children, fortunately, safely negotiated the traffic at the intersection of Princes and Rattray streets, and wandered on, hand in hand, towards the railway station. The girl, perhaps, had visions of making a visit to the Exhibition. 

The children had not proceeded far along Princes street when they were hailed by a policeman. 

The father, when he went to the station, half an hour later, to claim his offspring, found that they had dined well and that they did not appear to be in any hurry to take the homeward trail.

— ODT, 17.4.1926