The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-08-06
Grand Opening of Big
PoWer-House at Wal
niha--.Feasting, Jol-
lity and Speeches.
Excursions bysea and
Land Amidst Most
Charming Scenery
Full Description of
the Great Engineer
ing Work.

With the opening of the great power
plant of the Kauai Electric Company
IN Wainiha Valley last Saturday an
industrial triumph was scored in the
interest of the development of the
sugar industry Of the Islands. In the
presence of representative men of the
Islands, men whose names and influ-
ence are prominent in one business or
another closely associated with the de-
velopment of the sugar output, the re-
Gently completed plant was declared
formally opened.
Situated in the bottom of the Wal
nina gulch and not far from the
steamer landing the powerhouse is in
itself an example of the fight of the
engineers against natural physical OBJ
stacles and difficulties. Within that
machinery of the latest design for gen.
Grating electricity by water power, this
force being obtained from the great
mountain ranges whose SUBMITS are
seldom seen through the swirling
masses of rain-filIed clouds. The great
voltage of electricity so developed is
carried over mountain ranges and
gulches across the island for thirty
five miles to pumping stations on the
McBryde estate and there is utilized to
force water from the lower levels to
higher ones for distribution upon the
thousands and thousands of acres of
cane lands under cultivation.
The immediate results to the planta
tion are already in marked contrast to
conditions in the period Immediately
before the introduction of the electri-
cal current, for an additional million
of gallons of water per diem is pro-
cured by electrically driven pumps as
against the old-time steam-generated
pumps.
Within two weeks two new pumps
installed in single station will supply |
ten million gallons daily, and when all
plans are carried out, and all will be |
within a year, McBryde plantation will
have a visible supply of 4o,o0o,00O |
gallons of water daily, pumped and
lifted by electrically pumps. |!
The steam pumps will be abolished,
and coal will no longer be used for |
pumping water, and a small fortune an
nually viii be saved to the company
The saving in money even now by the
CHANGE from steam TO electricity will /
be in the neighberhood of $4,000 per
month. The entire electrical PROPOSE
ton narrowed down to the finest point
simply means economy through the ap-
plication of the principle of industrial
economics-in other words, getting the
greatest possible returns from the least
possible expenditure.
Ninety of Honolulu s business men
went to Kauai Friday evening on the
steamer Mauna Loa to witness the
opening ceremonies and the operation
of the power-plant, the first of the KIND
to be installed in the Islands. They
returned TO Honolulu yesterday i'm
pressed with the magnitude of the un-
dertaking and the probable results to
the plantation. The impression one
gains from personal tour of this vast
estate is one of pleasant anticipation
for a successful future. In its pres
ent state it gives promise of future
greatness.
PHYSICAL KAUAI.
Kauai is the most northerly island
and the oldest of the Hawaiian group
1t well deserves the epithet OF Garden
Isle. for its seashores, valleys, gulches,
plateaus, ridges and ranges TEEN with
the greenest of verdure. Viewed from
the deck of steamer the slopes of the
mountains appear SO corrugated as to
suggest that huge claw scratched
them in the beginning from summit to