Electric Light
Reefton calls itself ‘the town of light’, because it turned on electric street lighting before any other town in the southern hemisphere (1888).
Reefton was the first town in the southern hemisphere to have electric street lighting. With mining came technology and innovation, and in August 1888 Reefton became the first place in New Zealand and the Southern Hemisphere to have a public supply of electricity, even before the fashionable suburbs of London and New York. The lights were powered by a commercial hydroelectric generator.
The Reefton Electrical Transmission of Power and Lighting Company Ltd was established with the proposal to divert water from the Inangahua River on the left bank opposite the small settlement of Blacks Point and carry it via a water race 2 kilometers down to a point almost opposite the centre of Reefton. (see map). This provided a head of approximately 8.3 metres (27 feet) and it was intended that the output would be sufficient to supply 500 lamps - for street, business, hotel and house lighting. The dynamo ordered was a 20kW Crompton bipolar dynamo ordered through the Wellington firm of E.A. Ashcroft and Co. The turbine was a Rafel type built by Scott Bros. of Dunedin.Construction of the race started around the middle of 1887 after two contracts had been let. These were not accomplished with ease however and two tunnels had to be added to pass one section of slip and bypass the main bluff. However the local newspapers reported good progress near the end of 1887, the races were effectively finished by the end of January 1888. Eventually public trials were held, first at the powerhouse on 1st August (and a delightful account of the reaction of the large crowd is recorded in the next issue of the Inangahua Times). A full public showing in the Oddfellows' Hall in Reefton occurred on the evening of 4th August and was judged to be a great success.
Article about the public showing in the Oddfellows' Hall
This is part of an article in the Inangahua Herald of 6 August 1888 that details the coming of electricity to Reefton on the West Coast.
"... . A second public trail of the electric light system was made on Saturday evening last in Broadway. The night was fortunately very favorable for the display, and an immense crowd of people gathered in the street to witness the exhibition, and when, shortly before 8 p.m., the powerful light of the arc-lamp burst forth, like a flash of a mighty meteor, a murmer of admiration rose from the spectators, and there was an immediate skampering of feet towards the sceen of the display. As on the former occasion, the lkight throbbed a good deal, but at its maximum brilliancy illuminated the town over a very wide area, with its cold, cheeless, phosphorescent rays. The illumination reached far up'on the mountains round the town, and gave a very sepulchral appearance to the hilll-sides, the treess and stumps standing out in the strange pallid light, like so may tombstones. But if the arc-light was an attraction outside, the interiori of the Oddfello's Hall was infeitely more so. Rows of lamps were sespended fownt he building, encased in a variety of fantastically shaped shades of different colours, and thye whole scene was one of strickin splendor. It was indeed a "Hall of dazzling light." ...
- Carl Walrond. 'Gold and gold mining', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 24-Sep-11
URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/gold-and-gold-mining/12/2