It was a dramatic proposal — one that, if taken up, would have provided thirty times as much power as then used in the whole of New Zealand. As much energy as was then used in the United Kingdom. It was not nuclear energy. The year was 1904 and the Minister of Works, Mr Hall-Jones, was talking about hydro electricity. Hydro power would replace gas and kerosene for lighting. It would power the railways. It would make New Zealand the manufacturing centre of the Pacific.
One of the main proposals offered by the Minister was to use the altitude difference between Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka to generate power. This would be at The Neck, that narrow piece of land over which the Haast highway crosses on its way to Haast Pass. There is a 65 metre difference in altitude there and only 2 km of distance to tunnel through.
The electricity generated there would make its way to Dunedin to power the whole city — while also powering the towns along the way. For rural Otago, it would be revolutionary.
So why is there no historic powerhouse beside the Haast highway? The reason, as usual, was money. There was none to spare in 1904, and none when the Hawea-Wanaka proposal next surfaced in 1912. Then, of course, there was a war, after which there was no money. It also seems, from reading the reports of the time, that loss of power in transmission was not accounted for.
Instead of central government making the investment, local bodies eventually formed Power Boards to exploit hydro power sources closer to its markets. The Teviot Board used the storage dam at Lake Onslow, originally built for gold mining. The Queenstown-Cromwell district built at Roaring Meg. And Dunedin, after an attempt to send the water of Lee Stream through a tunnel was thwarted by hard rock and rising costs, invested in the Waipori scheme — eventually managing to obtain an Act of Parliament to give it the right to cover to town of Waipori with the waters of Lake Mahinerangi.
The Hawea-Wanaka scheme was not fogotten — my father told me about it in the 1970s. In 2012 it was proposed again, including the ability, at times of heavy rainfall making cheaper hydro power, to pump water up from Wanaka to Hawea to prevent flooding at Wanaka town. A member of the Lake Wanaka Guardians, set up after the successful campaign to prevent the raising of Lake Manapouri, was doubtful, citing the so far unspoiled status of the lake. The question of what Hawea people thought of more water in their lake during times of flood was, it seems, not asked.
The last words of this story I will give to a poet of varying talent, Angus Cameron Robertson, who, writing at the height (or perhaps depth) of the Great Depression, described the glittering future of Otago having harnessed the mighty Clutha River:
As already indicated, if such a small body of water as the Teviot River is capable of generating such power as it certainly does, can the imagination of the reader portray what shall happen when the river Molyneux is harnessed up on the American principle. From Cromwell to Port Molyneux powerful pumps shall be worked by power generated from the river. Elevated dams shall be filled with millions of tons of water. The mountain side as well as the plain shall be worked. The Molyneux shall become the garden of New Zealand, powerful spray force pumps shall have jets of sparkling waters right over the summits of the mountains. Every foot of land shall be cultivated; waste lands shall be planted in trees. Tramways shall run to the summit of Mt. Benger, and the people in the coming city of Roxburgh shall have their summer lodges in the summit of Mt. Benger. The river shall be full of salmon and trout: deer and other game shall abound in the mountain forest. Roxburgh shall become a great seat of culture and learning. In other parts of the world it shall be said of refined and cultured Roxburgh young men and young women: — “That refined, and scholarly person is a graduate of Roxburgh University.” As a natural sanatorium, Roxburgh shall assuredly become world-wide famous. Its young men and women shall become distinguished abroad on account of their good physique, their manly qualities, the women by their womanly charm and beauty — they shall he known as the Roxburgh “peaches” and Dumbarton “apricots”; and women from Coal Creek shall he referred to as the Coal Creek “roses." -Mt Benger Mail, 1/3/1933.
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