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THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1920. 



WATER-POWER AND DARTMOOR. 



THE proposal to develop electrical energy from 

 water-poweu on Dartmoor has led to a 

 strong protest against interference with the 

 amenity of the moor as appreciated by the lovers 

 of solitary places. Mr. Eden Phillpotts first 

 directed attention to the matter by a letter in the 

 Times of December 10, in which he called on the 

 Duchy of Cornwall, the landlords of Dartmoor, to 

 act quickly "and help to create a body of Parlia- 

 mentary opinion ; otherwise the destructive and ill- 

 considered enterprise may receive sanction from an 

 indifferent House of Commons next session." A 

 Plymouth correspondent supplied to the Times of 

 December 23 an account of the scope of the pro- 

 posed scheme, and on later days other writers ex- 

 pressed their strong disapproval of the project 

 from local, engineering, or aesthetic points of view. 

 Unfortunately for a journal which desires to review 

 the situation justly, the supporters of the scheme 

 have not taken part in the newspaper discussion, 

 and as we have not seen the Bill in question we 

 can judge of its provisions only from the state- 

 ments of its opponents, and must accordingly 

 assume an attitude which may appear more critical 

 of the upholders of the status quo than our sym- 

 pathies would have dictated had we access to both 

 sides of the question. 



To many lovers of Nature, Dartmoor has already 

 suffered disenchantment by the grim associations 

 of the prison which has been established there for 

 a century, and there may be some who object to 

 the system of leats which for a still longer period 

 has supplied water to the towns on its fringes. 

 The correspondence referred to does touch un- 

 favourably on the modern waterworks which 

 supply Plymouth, Torquay, and Paignton, but 

 these are accomplished facts, and serve merely 

 to strengthen the opposition to new interference 

 with the moor and its rivers. 



The scheme of the Dartmoor and District 

 Hydro-electric Supply Company is briefly to utilise 

 the great rainfall and high altitude of Dartmoor 

 in the generation of electricity at several power 

 stations situated on different streams, to convey 

 the current to the neighbouring towns and villages 

 for ordinary municipal purposes, and possibly to 

 erect industrial establishments where current 

 might be used for electrolytic or power purposes. 

 It is claimed that this work will furnish needed 

 employment for the population of the district, 

 NO. 2619, VOL. 104] 



provide a continuous and economical supply 

 of electricity for lighting, traction, and heating, 

 reduce the congestion of railway traffic by 

 diminishing the demand for coal, and gener- 

 ally increase prosperity and confer public benefits 

 more than sufficient to counterbalance any inter- 

 ference with agriculture, fishing rights, or the 

 pleasure of visitors to the Moor. 



The general, and especially the local, public is 

 not qualified to weigh the rival claims, and as 

 things now stand Parliament must proceed by the 

 old, cumbrous, and very costly method of hearing 

 eloquent advocates and technical experts on all 

 the points raised. 



No one is now likely to deny the general ap- 

 plicability of the rule that private convenience 

 must give way to public advantage ; but there is 

 still a great deal of confusion as to the criteria 

 by which the conflicting claims should be judged. 

 It is in our opinion essential that all matters con- 

 nected with the use of natural resources should 

 be investigated by experts whose personal in- 

 terests are not involved in the case. It is of equal 

 importance that full and impartial information 

 should be available before a decision is arrived at. 

 In the present instance no one knows what the 

 available rainfall on Dartmoor really is, but this 

 can be ascertained if an average rainfall map is 

 constructed from the data which are accessible 

 and according to methods which have been estab- 

 lished. The available fall between reservoirs and 

 power-houses can be found by direct surveys 

 guided by the existing Ordnance Survey maps. 



The cost of the necessary engineering works is 

 a more dithcult and practically a more important 

 question, as no one can foresee the price of 

 materials or the value of the pound note during 

 the years which must elapse before the works can 

 be completed. The size of the dams required in 

 forming reservoirs and the depth of their founda- 

 tions, on which any estimate of cost must be based, 

 can be ascertained only by detailed surveys and 

 numerous borings, which experience of private Bill 

 legislation has taught us are not always carried 

 out before the Bill is deposited. The danger of 

 underestimating the cost is less likely to be in- 

 curred by a company which depends on the scheme 

 showing a profit when carried out than by a 

 public authority which does not labour under that 

 wholesome disability. In other aspects, however, 

 the exploitation of natural resources by public 

 ■ authorities is more likely to be to the public in- 

 terest, and certainly more likely to secure general 

 confidence. 



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