Hydro-Electricity For
p. 41 · Read in the full issue
Noumea
THE 50 miles of grid-lines, bringing electricity from the Nickel Co. hydro-electric smelters at Yate, to the Point Doniambo smelters, Noumea, are now in operation.
The completion of the line is hailed as a big event in New Caledonia’s industrial development. It will mean less depend ence on Newcastle coal supplies, which have been so uncertain since the war owing to the Australian miners’ go-slow policy and industrial unrest.
The Nickel Co, is to undertake work in the Yate catchment area of the Plaine des Lacs, to increase the electricity poten tial, for the present water power is in sufficient in times of drought, in spite of the dam built earlier in the century by Mr. Adolphus Nichols for the rich Ger man Jewish mining magnate, Bernheim.
The company proposes to create a new artificial lake and dam near the great Anna-Madeleine waterfall.
Noumea’s water supply from the pump ing station on the Montagne Coupee is also to be increased by power turned on at Yate. This station was put into opera tion by the Americans, but the Diesel engines need to be replaced, and the municipality finds them costly as they consume 1,600,000 francs worth of oil per annum. Yate current should mean in creased efficiency and greater economy.