A "BURNING" QUESTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 129, 2 June 1926, Page 10

A "BURNING" QUESTION.

DEVONPORT AND POWER BOARD. TO JOIN OR MOT TO JOIN. WHAT THE MAYOR THINKS. "We hear quite a number of people say that it is better for us to join the Waitemata Power Board," said the Mayor of Devonport, Mr. T. Lamont, last evening. There are others who say that it is better not to join the Power Board, but when you ask these peqsle how they arrive at their conclusions you find very few who can give you an intelligent or logical reason. The whole problem hinges upon the declared policy of the Power Board not to strike a rate to meet their liabilities in a sinking fund on their loan. Consequently the price of the current sold would be regulated by the amount of their liabilities, so that if Devonport joined the Power Board the total capital of the board would be £261,000. Assuming that the Power Board in the next three or four years would average equal consumption outside of Devonport to that in Devonport, the price Devonport would have to pay would be based upon half the £261,000 which of course was £130,500. Whereas if they did not join the Power Board and bought current in bulk on the same terms as Paimerston North bought from the Manawatu Power Board, which was at Government rates, plus a contribution of £300 and the cost of the line from their nearest sub-station to Paimerston North, a distance of five miles, Devonport would be required to pay something like £100 per annum for the maintenance of the lines between Takapuna and Devonport. In that way the price of current as supplied to consumers would be based upon the capital of £61,000. After, say seven or ten years the Waitemata Power Board area consumed three times the amount of current that Devonport consumed, it would still be to Devonport's advantage to buy in bulk on the terms described, because if they were on the Power Board the price of current would be based upon £65,250, whereas, if they remained on their own it would still be based upon £61,000, with this added advantage that being the biggest borough with the biggest population occupying a small area of land, having no long lines to construct, their transmission loans would, be very small in comparison to that of the Power Board. A further advantage would be that they would have the right to fix their prices of current and gjve supplies wherever they chose without having to consult anyone outside the borough. What made this question so difficult, was the fact that they had the present generating plant. Without that it would be a very simple question."