Water-Power in the Highlands
More than once schemes for the development of the water-power of the Highlands by private industry have been rejected by Parlia- ment ; but the far more grandiose scheme for hydro-electrical development through a public utility board, with a Government guarantee for the expenditure of £3o,00o,000, commands and deserves wider support. The Scottish Highlands are a region in most respects poor in natural resources, at present supporting only a small popu- lation. But in its potential water-power it has immense possibilities of wealth as yet untapped. There were sound arguments against
an uncontrolled development for private profit, which would ha% had the effect of spoiling some of the finest country in the Britis Isles. The proper way to make use of sources of power—which i the interests of northern Scotland as a whole clearly ought to used—is to put them in the hands of a Public Services Board, as recommended in the report on which the Government Bill is basted. The enterprise is one which must be undertaken. None the less, in promoting it everything possible should be done to prevent ugly development which would spoil, the countryside. If properly undertaken, the engineering works set up should not bring unsightliness to large expanses ; and great care must be taken to the choice of sites for the proposed electro-metallurgical industries. That is not all. Subsidiary industries will grow up in the neigh- bouring districts, and when development on this vast scale in a beautiful countryside is foreseen, as it is, it would be unpardonable not to make provision for planning on a large scale. The Standing Committee on National Parks, though. it is unwisely objecting to the Development Bill as a whole, is right when it asks for the creation of a regional authority devoted to the task of overall plan- ning—a proposal which is surely compatible with amendment of the Bill in committee. The House of Commons did well to give the measure a second reading without a division on Wednesday. Switzerland has shown how completely compatible the development of hydro-electric power is with the preservation of natural beauty and the cultivation of a flourishing tourist-industry.
Previous page
