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Still another report' on the Chip-- pawa--and the latest report of all-- Elst_x tabled last night, is that of R. c 002 o ecenr o OmP.. eeve'e | Peagieey T0 ~AHGt CE Ets 8. Lea, Consulting Engineer, which, after detailing the favorable pro-- gress made right up to April 9, 1921, says, with respect to an important The much--talked--of Cooper report on the Hydro development work at Chippawa was tabled in the Ontario Legislature last evening by the Pre-- mier, and it contained an estimated cost of $711,988,62%6 for the work which had been estimated by Hydro engineers to cost $55,000,000 odd. But whereas the Cooper report is dated ten months ago, the later re-- port of Btuart and Kerbaugh, also tabled last night, is almost exactly in line with the Hydro estimates and glves a total estimated cost of $52,-- 71,1§9. Interesting also in connection with the matter is the statement of Hon. D. Carmichael on the floor of the House only on Tuesday evening, that the cost would not exceed $55,000,-- 000, and that power would be gen-- erated in SepterMber on schedule time. The official information from tpe Hydro offices yesterday is that the work, with only four months to §g0, is well within the cost estimate. More and More Glowing. Cooper Report Away Out. "When critics complain that this work was first estimated to cost ten, and then twenty, and fin®@ly fifty-- five millions," said « Hon. D. Car-- michael, in discussing the estimates, "they faii to take into 'their con-- sideration that the canal was at first not to be so large, nor the total of horsepower to be developed so great. Consequently some of the statements that are being made are not strictly true." 2. Mageau, in discussing the Chip-- pawa item in the estimates, de-- clared that expenditure 'bf public monies on Hydro for the benefit of Western Ontar!f) and T"mto was entirely unfair to the NoWh and to the East. Pl':n.\';;;':-"v:'i-t'h _E:Bn;petent advisers, went over the Chippawa develop-- ment work. P ECC "Having gone over it in that way," he said, "having given as much care as we possibly could, and as much study as we possibly could, we came to the conclusion that the chances for its ultimate success were many many times the chances for its ult!-- mate failure. Since then we have done everything possible to rush the project to completion. We consid-- ered that the objections containced in that report could not be consider-- ed alongside of the reports coming from the canal giving us the assur-- ance of success." That $2 Power Tax. have been, declared ifie' Premier, when the Cooper report was receiv-- ed it was taken quite seriously into consideration. As a result of it the In Mr. Lewis' opinion the Govern< ment was very wise to keep the re-- port under cover until progress at the plant had offset its rfipresenta- tions. Very briefly the Premier, declared his reasons for not desiring to press Into action the suggestions of the special committee on Hydro for im-- posing a $2% per horsepower tax ou power, with which to assist rural municipalities in securing Hydro ex-- tensions. The Province, he satd, was going through a very serious period of industrial depression at the present time, and he feared that it would be very unwise to do any-- thing that might tend to unsettle or disturb industry. After the Premier and Opposi-- tion Leaders had agreed yéhat there should be set aside ont day for complete discussion of the whole Hydro situation, /w. C Lewis (Northeast Toronto) called the at-- tention of the House to "the fact that H. L. Cooper was an engineer who estimated that the St. Law-- rence development scheme would cost a billion dollars, whereas the most authentic estlmatq placed -- it around $150,000,000. f Wish to Hold It Back. s Although the committee had donse splendid work, and although the principle of extending assistance to rural districts was one whh which he was entigely in accord, he did not desire to press that particular phase of it into legislation' this ses-- sion. Nor, indeed, was he sure that the $2 tax was just the right me-- thod of extending such agsistance. bortion of the work, "Results at this stage are so promising that in all probability fewer plant units than the ten proposed, will be required. They also furnish fair indications that the expectations expressed in the previous report as to time of completion and ultimate cost will be realized." Itemizing the various works un-- der their various heads, Mr. Lea's report shows that power hguse work is well in advance of schedule, with dimishing unit costs; penoto;:ks, it is said, will most likely be '"corfilpletely installed on the scheduled date;" gatehouse work is in advance of schedule, but the costs are already running close to the estimate; cort-- crete canal lining gives every indica-- tion of being installed on schedule and within estimated cost; excava-- tion work, with a twenty per cent. increase in output, is now only 9 days behirfM schedule, whereas last fall it was 14 days RBehina. Satisfactory Every Way. Wellard River and intake work, Mr. Lea reports as progressing satis-- Tactorily, both as to progress of work and cost. Mr. Lea's report is sup-- plementary to the joint report pre-- sented on Feb. 15 lasty by R. D. Johnson of New York and himself. The Cooper report, which contains estimates of the work done to May 1, 1920, is a pessimistic one in reJ gard to costs. Working upon the development of power with a flow of 15,000 second feet and a develop-- ment of approximately~ 450,000 horsepower, his estimate of the total cost is put at $71,988,626. At this time approximately $14,000,000 had been already expended. In a second estimate, based upon a d&yelopment of 20,000 second feet witNH a horse-- power production of about 600,000, his total estimate of c@ost is placed at $88,930,506. Report of Experts. s The estimates which were later pre-- pared by Francis L. Stuart and H.S. Kerbaugh, and dated September 30, 1920, gave a total cost much below the Cooper estimates, and decidedly more in line with the estimates of the commission's engineers. Stuart and Kerbaugh were engaged to re-- port upon three features of the Chippawa -- undertaking--the -- suit-- ability of the plant for the construc-- tion program proposed, the possible dates of completion of the canal for the generation of power by the first and second units, and the probable cost to complete. Estimates Reasonable. Their estimate, based upon the canal plans as they are actually be-- ing carried out, which means de-- velopment of 15,000 second feet with a power capacity of approximately 450,000 or 500,000 horsepower, give a total estimated cost of $52,271,759,| after making an allowance for sal--| vage recoverable of $4,000,000 and receipts from broken stone of $2,--| 600,000. This estimate of cost means | a total per horsepower of $116.16. . | In a report dated October 26, 1920, R. 8. and W. S. Lea of Montreal give the result of their findings upon two or three technical points, including the provision made for protecting the intake from ice obstruction. It sets out at considerable length a new method of protecting intakes, which has been adopted by the commission. The engineers were asked to re-- port upon the dependable capacity of the canal, and their finding was that, with the present levels, the