BLAZE OF LIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 292, 10 December 1925, Page 10

BLAZE OF LIGHT.

I. . j ELECTRICITY IN THE STREETS. i I QUICK WORK BY THE POWER BOARD. YEAR AHEAD OF TIME. Remarkable progress- has been made by the Auckland Electric Power Board in the lighting of Auckland by electricity. At one time the work was much behind, through no fault of the board's. What is practically a special department was set up to deal with the work. The results have been remarkable, and this morning the Mayor (Mr. George [Baildon) said it was surprising the rapidity with which the work had been speeded up. One gets a very graphic idea, of the change that has been "brought by the wide use of electricity in the streets if one goes to the top of Mount Eden some evening after dusk. Motorists after a spin often make a run jup the hill a sort of bonne bouche, and nothing oeuld be more effective. The view from that elevated point in day time is grand, but at night the human side of the landscape is emphasised; the niglit veils the distance and the myriad lights of the city seem to fill the wholo picture. Since electricity has been used for the streets the effect from this eyrie is very fine, the whole place being apparently a network of lights. Seen this morning, the general manager of the Power Board (Mr. R. H. Bartley) said they had been able to make up a lot of time by concentrating on the work with a special staff, and in spite of difficulties, mainly in getting supplies of cable, the board was well ahead of the contract time entered into with the council. According to the original programme the board was required to put in 183 lamps in 1924, 602 in 1925, 515 in 1926, and 520 in 1927. These lamps represent roughly 174 miles of streets and 1850 lights, and instead of taking until 1927 the board hopes to have an equivalent amount of work done by March, 1926, twelve months ahead of the programme. " It should be explained that the original programme has been added to at various times, such as lighting the safety zones of the tramways, and actually the board has done a good deal more work, so that the performance is all the more creditable to the organisation and the skill of the workmen employed. The expeditious job the board's staff has made of the street lighting in the city is all the more creditable when it is remembered that they were a year late in starting the job, that the shipping strike disorganised things terribly as regards cable supplies, and in spite of these handicaps the. twelve months has not only, been recovered, but another twelve months has been gained, or will be by March next. In- addition to the city proper, the surburban boroughs have been clamouring for lamps, and nothing is more striking than .the amazing rapidity with which electricity has. spread. Very soon j not only -Auckland, but Greater Auckland, and, in fact, far into the country, ; will soon be linked up by chains of light. Papakura and Manurewa are at present i to be the limits of the bright chain, and i between the city and those distant i suburbs—for they are practically suburbs i to-day—there will be something like 3800 lamps, varying in power from the big i flood-lights to the ordinary street lamp. ij It is interesting to know the location of 1 these many points of- light. In the city there will be 1850, Mount Eden 250, One Tree Hill 100, Mount Albert 500, Newmarket 180, Ellerslie 70, Onehunga 250, Mount Eoskill 120, Avondale 50, Tamaki Road District 143, Otahuhu 40, Mangere 18, Papatoetoe 40 to 50, Manurewa 20 to 30, Papakura 30 to 40.