The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1936. POWER CONTROL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 66, 18 March 1936, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1936. POWER CONTROL.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the xc-rong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

A crucial stage in the supply of electricity in Southland has been reached by the decision of the Southland Power Board to take a referendum of its ratepayers on the question of handing over the whole of its elcctric power scheme to the State. The attractiveness of such a proposition to the ratepayers is obvious, for it contains a promise of the abolition of the present rate on land for power supply in Southland, but is this a question which should be decided by the ratepayers alone? The interests of a large body of consumers, many of whom pay no rates and therefore have no vote, are involved. The reply which the consumers would give might be Very different from that of the ratepayers. Hence there exists a weakness in the basis of the poll. This might be thought a matter for Southland concern alone, but is it? An extension of Government control in this area, by whatever means achieved, may be only the preliminary to other extensions of the same kind. Southland may thus be made the thin end of the wedge.

It is unlikely that the Government would be content to take over only the schemes which have involved the local authorities in financial troubles. Indeed, there is the definite statement of Mr. Semple that nationalisation of power supply in New Zealand must be tackled by the Government before very long. "The Government will make the effort," he says, "to nationalise distribution and cut down costs. I cannot see any way of doing this except by making the supply and sale o£ electricity a national monopoly." It is easy to make out a case for the abolition of many existing boards, but this is a very different argument from advocating the complete abolition of boards and centralised control. Possibly the 40 boards now engaged in power supply could be reduced to a dozen with a general gain in administrative costs.

There are far too many small boards, as there are too many small local bodies of all kinds. Compared with the Auckland Power Board's operations the business of the majority of electric power authorities is as that of an insignificant road board to a city council's. In short, the machinery for the retailing of electricity is as. unsatisfactory as the rest of the machinery of local Government in the Dominion. The proper remedy is not to wipe it out, but to reform it. A State Department might succeed in getting costs down, though State enterprise in the past has not been particularly successful in this direction, but would it give, that prompt and efficient service which is given by the best of the power boards? Co-operation between the State as the producer and wholesale distributor of power and a small number of power boards as the retail agents is the most desirable solution.