CHRISTCHURCH IN DARKNESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 295, 11 December 1923, Page 12

CHRISTCHURCH IN DARKNESS.

ELECTRIC LINES BROKEN. BOTH ROUTES AFFECTED. STAND-BY PLANTS IN USE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, 'Monday. Official advice was received to-night that trouble had developed at Lake Coleridge, and that both transmission lines are down between Hororata and Christchurch.

From seven o'clock until ten o'clock this evening lights were on and off at intervals, failing altogether at the latter hour. Trams were held up until the Tramway Board's steam plant was got into operation, traffic being resumed after a halt of half an hour. The City Council's stand-by plant was also requisitioned, and illumination was then supplied to a portion of the city. The greater part, however, remains in darkness, and it is likely to do co until the fault in the Lake Coleridge transmission lines v found and rectified.

Picture theatre patrons were not inconvenienced to any great extent. This evening the managements quickly brought their own plants into use.

Power from Lake Coleridge was used for the lighting of-Timaru for the first time last night, and worked generally satisfactorily, although there were a few momentary periods of darkness. Owing to the break in the lines thie evening the local plant had to be brought into use again.