Vlll 



MAY, 1902. 



A meeting of the Royal Society of 

 Tasmania was held on Monday evening, 

 12th Mav. His Excollencv the Presi- 

 dent. SiV Arthur Havelock, G.C.S.I., 

 G.C.M.G., who Avas to havr presdded, 

 was prevented attending ttlirough indis- 

 positiion. Hi& Excellency sent a sym- 

 pathetic letter, expressing his regret and 

 intere&t- in the busines.s of the meeting. 

 In his absence Mr. Tlios. Stephens, M.A., 

 senior vice-president, occupied the 

 chair. 



The Late Sir James Agnew. 



Mr. Stephens said that his unavoid- 

 able absence from Hobart at the time of 

 the last meeting of the Soiciety had' pre- 

 vented him from repo'rting his re- 

 ceipD in Fi bruary last of a letber 

 from the Royal Colonial Institute 

 in reference to the death of the 

 late Sir James Agnew. The Becretary 

 states that the Couucil "had received 

 Avitli great regret the announcement of 

 the deatih ol Sir James AgneAV. for many 

 yca.rs a valued and highly respected 

 member of the Institute, and expressed 

 their deep s'ense of the loss sustained by 

 the Institute, as well as bj' the com- 

 munity amidst which he had laved ko 

 long, and by whom he was' so universally 

 and deservedly esteemed. '' 



Tasmania as a Mamfufacturing Centre. 



Mr. G. E. Moore, C.E., opened the 

 discussion on the paper read at the April 

 meeting by Mr. R. E, Macnaghten 

 on Tasmania asi a manufacturing 

 cenitre, espeoial'ly in relation to water 

 power. He said : — Mr. Macniagh'ten 

 has drawn a very pleasiimg picture of 

 Tasmania as a manufacturing centre, 

 l>ased upon its many natural advanttaiges, 

 eepectially with regard to its superior 

 local conditionis for obtainiinig cheap mo- 

 tive power derived from its lakes and 

 levers. What I propose to discusis is 

 the reasoniaibleness or otherwise of tHiis 

 found'aition, on which he builds his hopes. 

 His authority apparenitly is a report 

 preisen'ted to Parliament by Mr. Rahbeik, 

 ^hawing \ybat power could be obtained 

 froim the water of the cenitral lakes. Mr. 

 Rahbek estimates that 57,000 h.p. 

 could be delivered at Hobart from this 

 siource. A general statement of this 

 kiind is of no value to an engineer, and 

 is distinctly miisleadinig to fhe genieral 



public. With juist as much accuracy 

 I oould state thiait there is daily 57,000 

 h.p. of wind power blowing to waste, 

 or 57.000 h.p. stea.m power in unde^ 

 veloped coal in Taomaniiia. To utilise 

 to advantage this water power, two 

 problems must be solved, engiineertin'g 

 and comjmercial. The engine erinig pro- 

 blem resolves itself into the queistdon 

 whether the local circoioiLstances are S'Uch 

 as to eniaible tihe necosisary works to be 

 cairried out to give a certain h.p. ajb 

 a ."^ufficicmtly low cost per h.p. to com- 

 peibe with steam.. As regainds the coim- 

 meroial prohliem, thiere is the necesisilby 

 for oonislt'an't remunera-tive employane'nt 

 of the power produced. Takinig the 

 enjgineeirinig proiblem fir.-\t, one of the 

 chief nec'esisary factors is a waterfaill in 

 proximity to civilisation. Unifortu- 

 niaiteily Tasimania does molt possess a 

 waterfall of amy size, and to get a fall 

 of even 10 or 15 feet per mile you mtist 

 go- 40 or 50 miileis up the Derwentt, and 

 powder derived frotm the cenJtral lakes 

 would be double that. diLsitanioe away, so 

 the eil'emenltis for cheap comoitructiionj eune 

 wanting. No doubt the power obtladn- 

 ed woruld be turnied^ into electric power, 

 capable of beiinigtranismdtted mianiy miles, 

 but although we hiear of electric powea' 

 being in special casies traiii-niittied 100 

 mile® and more, I think I am correct in 

 saying that for practical purposes the 

 economical limit is not over 20 miles! at 

 the present day. Then looking at the 

 commercial sicle, Mr. Macnaghten 

 mentionis four indigenouis industriefii : 

 Woollen gcods, be^er, timber, and fruit 

 as likely to benefit and increase owing- 

 to federation — as no doubt they widjl, 

 but, unfortunately, they are not trades 

 that: irequire much power, iso that if 

 wat'er power is to- b-e largely ujyedi, it 

 must be by iniroiducing some new manu- 

 factures into tihe idand. The position 

 then isi this. There is a. la^rge amount 

 of water power undeveloped, but it is 

 doubtful whether it would pay to utiliisie 

 it at the present time. A pr'actictaJ 

 solution of this quesition wou'lld be the 

 erection of works to creaite and STipply 

 electric power. But Government wouJJdl 

 hardly be justified in, engaging in suctli 

 a speculation, and there does not appear 

 to be sufficiemt inducement for any pri- 

 vate company to enter the field. The 

 question is entirely one of reiliative coJst, 

 and that you may more eaisdiy under- 



