POWER SUPPLY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19971, 4 July 1930, Page 11

POWER SUPPLY.

WAIMAKARIRI SCHEME. DIVERSION OF M.E.D. FUNDS. In the event of a disaster, similar to that at Arapuni, happening at Lake Coleridge, the City of Christchurch could only muster stand-by plants capable of generating between 500 and 1000 k.w. Speaking at the Municipal Electricity Department's function last night, .Cr. H. T. J. Thacker, chairman of the Electricity Committee, made" this statement, quoting Mr E. Hitchcock, the general manager of the Department, as his * authority. Cr. Thacker said that one reason why the Department wanted to'posspss a strong general reserve fund was that it might be able to provide a stand-by plant. He did not want to croak, but he assured those present that there was necessity for both a strong reserve and for a stand-by plant. Referring to the Waitaki power scheme, Cr. Thacker referred to the steep mountain on the north bank of the river and to the possibility of a landslide putting the power station out of operation. Cr. Thacker made reference to the hypothecation of the Department's funds by the City Council.

Breach of Trost Alleged. | Speaking later, Mr Arnaud McKellar, a former chairman of the Electricity Committee, said. that it was a disappointment to him that the City Coun-. cil was not. carrying out the intentions of the Electricity Committee of former days. That was to build up the Department with such strong reserves that they would be in a position to face the Government in any eventuality that might happen to the City in respect of electricity. One of the functions of the City Council was to see that the funds of the consumers of- electricity were conserved in such a manner that when the Government was met the City would not be faced by Arapumia. A few years ago they had been fortunate in having the Waimakariri proposition and it was a sound one. He regretted that it did not succeed owing to tbe absence of unity; but for that they would have had the Waimakariri scheme tb-day and. very much cheaper electricity. (Applause.) His idea had been to build up a strong fund so that if the Governmeat failed them they could get their own generating station. To see the Department's funds being distributed in other ways seemed to him to be a breach of trust towards the consumers' of electricity. The funds of the Depart--ment should go to make it absolutely: watertight, and then to reduce the, price of "juice" so that Christ church would have the] cheapest rates in the world; but if the profits were absorbed in o>ther ways, he feared that would nevei be done.

A Beassuiing Note. Ct.. E. H.*' Andrews, chairman of the Finance Committed, said that he could assure Mr McKellar that he had nothing to fear about the "grab" of the" Electricity Department's funds. Those funds belonged, of coiirse, to the ratepayers who haid backed the Department, and the whole of its- huge expenditure. If anything \yent wrong the ratepayers would have to find the money; nothing was going wrong and the Department was making money for the ratepayers. If the Department's money was being used to relieve the rates he did not know that there was very much to complain about. The M.E.D. had funds invested all over the country, in small boroughs, and the strange thing was that they could not be invested in their own City in the same way—that was the strange part of the law. But wh*at action had been taken, or was proposed to be taken, to carry on works in the City was, after all, only a loan, and provision was made for the Department to be secured. Mr McKellar need not be afraid that they were not going to maintain sufficient reserves to place them in a : position of security when they came to bargain with the Government.