POWER DEVELOPMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue LXI, 12 July 1930, Page 12

POWER DEVELOPMENT.

LOCAL BODIES DEBT. INCREASE IN PAST YEAR. LARGEST SESFGLE FACTOR. Electric supply and lighting was the largest individual factor contributing to the increase in local body indebtedness in New Zealand in 1929. This was in marked contrast with the previous year, when road construction headed the list. The latest Government returns show that the debt of local bodies in- the Dominion for electric power and lighting plants is £15,996,883, an increase of £1,027,601 in the twelve months. Inrecent years hydro-electric works have been carried out on a large scale, and now account for 23 per cent of .the total local body indebtedness. Activity in other directions is evidenced bv the fact that, of loan money, amounting to £10,581,760, expended on new works by borough councils during the last five years, a total of £4,210,599 (or 36 per cent) went on roads, streets and footpaths, and £3,178,733 on drainage. the past five years borough councils°have spent £1,371,024 on electric supply, or 13, per cent of the total. Activity in the direction of reading and power "development has been largely responsible for the present size of the Dominion local bodies' debt, which j amounts to £69,294,619, an increase in j the year of £2,890,447.