More Power to Your Elbow

WELCOME TO THE HOCKEN Friends of the Hocken Collections BULLETIN NUMBER 41 : July 2002 More power to your elbow NEW ZEALAND’S electricity industry has gone through so many transformations in the past twenty years that consumers can barely understand just who owns the power or the transmission lines at any given time, or how the system works. HIS bulletin may not be able to provide all the to be the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to adopt Tanswers, but at least it offers an introductory guide to electricity for street lighting. the Hocken Library’s extensive coverage of the history, The gold-dredging industry began to play a prominent development, expansion and governance of the electricity part, and Let There Be Light... (1986), the excellent history industry. The computerised catalogue headings such as of Bullendale and the generation of power in Central Electrical Industry, Hydroelectric, Electric Power, Wind Otago by Peter Chandler and Ron Hall, not only gives a Power, Geothermal etc run into hundreds. But easy start- first-class account of the Phoenix mining company’s ing points for general readers are No 3. Power (in the adoption of electric power in 1886, but places that event in ‘Making New Zealand’ series, 1940); ‘A Bright New the perspective of power development before and since. World’ article on pp.1485–90 of New Zealand’s Heritage; and descriptive entries in official yearbooks and encyclo- WAIPORI pedias. The Waipori Falls power scheme (originally instigated by private enterprise) has been so vital to Dunedin, and the PIONEER DAYS achievements of its American engineer Edgar Stark were From such 18th century physicists as Coulomb and the so dramatic that its literature — starting off with Stark’s publication of Benjamin Franklin’s famous Experiments own Description of Waipori Falls Power Project , c.1904 and Observations on Electricity in 1751, the mastery and — deserves a special listing: exploitation of electricity developed only gradually. Volta Anon. Prospectus: Waipori Falls Electric Power Co., first demonstrated current electricity in 1800, and Ampère 1902. enlarged on his work over the next 25 years. Faraday Anon. Nature’s Own Power, Waipori Falls, 1904. produced his first battery in 1812, a crude electric motor Anon. Newspaper Clippings, Waipori Falls, 1904. in 1821 and established the principles of a continuous- Anon. DCC Annual Reports, Waipori Falls, 1908; and current generator in 1831. Dynamos were being manufac- DCC annual reports generally. tured from about 1850. Anderson, J.T.N. The Lee Stream as a Source of Power for Britain was relatively slow to push ahead with electric Dunedin, 1902. lighting because of the efficiency and cheapness of its Crowley, Agnes J. Waipori Whispers, 1969. established gas industry, and this perhaps also affected the Drew, E.H. Report on Hydraulic Section of Waipori Falls, pioneer years in New Zealand until more go-ahead Ameri- 1907. can influences made their mark. Occasional early gold- Goodman, W.G.T. The Waipori Hydro Electric Power dredges, sawmills and flourmills introduced coal-powered Transmission Scheme, 1907. electrical machinery by the 1880s. Henderson, M.C. Brief History of Waipori Hydro-electric The real revolution dates from that decade. Sir Julius Development, c.1943. Vogel, returning from London in 1882 as representative of Hutcheson, W.H. To the Waipori Electric Power Syndi- the British Electric Light & Power Co., pushed the use of cate, 1901. electricity. Moss Davis had his Auckland home lit by Johnson, J.T. A Story of Waipori, 1944. McGregor, W.C. electricity in 1882; Lyttelton Harbour was lit in 1883; Waipori Falls Power Co.’s Bill, 1904 Wirth Brothers lit their circus in 1884; and in 1885 the Noyes Bros. Report on Cost of Electric Power from Mosgiel woollen factory lit its carding and spinning room Waipori Falls, 1906. — at that time the largest electrical installation in the Pairman, Ian R. An Engineer Told Me, 1998. country. When Wellington lit its streets in 1888 it claimed Pairman, Rodian. A History of DCC Electricity Dept and Waipori Falls Hydro-electric Scheme, 1951 Other southern references which may be of interest are: Parson, E.Marguerite. Waipori Centennial, 1861–1969, CLUTHA CATCHMENT — Clutha Valley Development 1969. Project, CVD Newsletter No.1, 1978; Impact Reports, Stark, E.E. Waipori Hydro-electric Plant: Second Annual Proposal F 1975, Central Otago 1976, Cromwell 1978– Report, 1909. 79–80; Social Impact, Clutha Power Development, Winfield, S.J. Waipori Extensions, 1953. Luggate and Queensberry, 1982; Cawthron Technical [Note also Daphne Y.Woolman’s thesis, ‘Waipori: an Group, 1980; Keith Johnston, An Analysis of Clutha economic analysis for hydro-electricity’, Master of Com- Rescue’s Protest Action, 1978; and Paul Powell’s Who merce, OU. 1955] Killed the Clutha?, 1978. CLYDE — Power Project, Environmental Impact, SMALL STATIONS TO LARGE MWD 1977; Water Rights for the Clyde Dam, 1979; What Before World War 2 most hydroelectric schemes in New You Should Know and What You Can Do About the Clyde Zealand, including such state-run facilities at Lakes High Dam, Clutha Action Committee, 1977; Power Coleridge and Monowai, were notable for small dams and Project, Clutha Valley Development, 1978; Applications extensive pipelines, whereas the postwar period brought for Water Rights, Upper Clutha Development Cttee 1979– in the big-dam era on the Waitaki, Clutha and Waikato 81, 1982; Hands off Lake Wanaka, 1972; J.R.S.Higham, rivers, and such schemes as the harnessing of the southern Upper Clutha Scheme, regional resource development; lakes. Clyde: a Guide to the Clyde Power Station; Lakeside For Coleridge, see Coleridge (NZED, 1953), an illus- Stabilisation, social and economic impact. trated pictorial booklet recording its construction and op- MANAPOURI — Sir Douglas Mawson, papers relating eration; also Rosemary Britten, Lake Coleridge (2000) for to NZ Sounds Hydro Concessions Ltd, 1925–30 (ms 880); station and community. For the Waitaki, the construction G.A.Howard, Power from Fiordland, School Bulletin, of the first station on the river is told in considerable de- 1971; G.Roy Hanan, A Dentist at Large, 1977; A.Leigh tail by G.G.Natusch in Waitaki Dammed (1984). Marion Hunt, An Empire Enterprise, 1927, also Confessions of a Sheridan’s Dam Dwellers (1995) gives an unequalled ac- Leigh Hunt; 1951; Information, NZ Nature Conservation count of life in the Upper Waitaki power-dam townships. Council, 1970; Benefit & Cost Analysis, NZ Institute of Economic Research, 1977; Manapouri Power Project, some facts & figures of interest, n.d.; Neville Peat, Manapouri Saved!, 1994; and D.H.Jones, Power Development & Environmental Protec- tion of Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau, 1979/80. Aaron Fox’s 335-page PhD thesis, ‘The Power Game: the development of the Manapouri-Tiwai Pt electro- industrial complex, 1904–1969’ offers outstanding coverage. OTHER POWER SCHEMES — Check the Hocken Library’s computerised catalogue for publications under such headings as — Arapuni, Aviemore, Bay of Plenty, Benmore, Buller, East Cape, Egmont, Hauraki, Hawkes Bay, Hinemaiaia, Horowhenua, Kaihu, Earlier power schemes were noted for ‘small stations and long pipelines’. Here, Kaniere, Maniototo-Paerau Gorge, Ministry of Works men construct the pipeline to the Fraser River Scheme, near Northland, Ohaaki, Rangitaiki, Rotorua, Clyde, in the 1950s. [Photo J.F.Shepherd & ODT] Taranaki, Timaru, Waikaremoana, Several general histories describe the participation of Waikato, Wairakei, Wanganui and West Poverty Bay. the state and its agencies in the industry including: John For coverage of Reefton’s pioneer municipal scheme E.Martin ed. People, Politics and Power Stations: Elec- in 1888 see Inangahua Centennial Times: celebrating 100 tric Power Generation in NZ, 1880–1990, 1991; Susan years of electricity in Reefton, 4 August 1988 (Reefton, Paris, Two Per Mile, a History of the Rural Electrical 1988). And for the subsequent reticulation of other south- Reticulation Council, 1997; and Neil Rennie, Power to ern urban areas, refer to such histories as K.C.McDonald’s the People, 100 years of Public Electricity Supply in NZ, White Stone Country (1965) for Oamaru, Jim McAloon’s 1989. See also B.B.Pickering, ‘State Policy and Hydro- Nelson (1997), Hallam L.Smith’s A History of the Town of electricity in NZ, 1884–1926’, MA thesis, OU, 1949. Gore Pt 2 (1997); J.O.P.Watt’s Centenary of Invercargill Municipality (1971) and K.C.McDonald’s City of Inquiry into the Electricity Industry, Ministry of Energy, Dunedin (1965). 2000. A search under ‘electric power board’ in the compu- Metering & Profiling: competition for small electricity terised catalogue produces much material. The index to consumers, Inst. for Economic Research, 1997. Otago Daily Times headlines c.1950s to 1990, available NZ Electricity Model at Work, Wellington, AIC Confer- both in bound volumes and online, is another invaluable ences, 1993. research resource; and one should remember that the Handbook for Optimised Deprival Valuation of Electricity official openings of power stations were invariably Line Businesses, Min. of Commerce, 1998. marked by substantial coverage (often special supple- Reliability of Electricity Supply, Project Overview, Centre ments) in local newspapers. Consult also the various for Advanced Engineering, Chch, 1993. volumes of the NZ National Bibliography, particularly Te Ika Whenua, Energy Assets Report, Waitangi Tribunal, Vol.5, p.369 which indexes titles up to 1960 relating to 1993. electricity. Transmission Pricing, Trans Power, 1993. Water Put to Work, Min. of Works, 1945. THE NEW ZEALAND INDUSTRY Wholesale Electricity Market Reform: analysis of options, From the enormous literature on our electricity industry, Wholesale Electricity Market Study (WEMS), 1992. both technical and general, the following selection is in- Wholesale Electricity, glossary of terms, 1993–94, ECNZ, tended primarily to guide inquirers to the types of 1993. material available. Wholesale Electricity Market Development Group, final report, Auckland, 1994. BY TITLE (AUTHOR ANONYMOUS) Dams in New Zealand, 1989. BY AUTHOR Design Power.

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