Page 11 Advertisements Column 5

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20025, 5 September 1930, Page 11

Wojks (the Rt. Hon. J. 61 Oo#tei)f Sr t Francis Bell, the Mayor of Chrißtehurch. (Mr J. A. Flesher), and Cr. A; McKellar, chairman of the Electrifwty Com- • mittee of the Council. Finally thp con-; tract was signed on behalf of the Council on April 24th, 1925, and retnjCMa v with the Minister's signature oil 2nd. .The contract covered ■» period of . 12 years from April Ist, 1926 ~ wnwl March 31st, 1937. It embodied the Gov-?, eminent's standard printed rates for the first year, for subsequent .years minimum annual payments for estimated loads with k.w. rateß for excess above - estimates, other features necessitated by the somewhat unusual circumstances arising from the- overloaded condition of the existing plant, and the promised completion of extensions at Lake Owe- . ridge-by July. 31st, 1926. . In the annual report of the Momcipal Electricity Department for the' year ended March 31st, 1925> the general manager (Mr' E. Hitchcock) comments: "Though the negotiations have been protracted and difficult, a satisfactory contract has now been ■ concluded, towards which the effect of " the Waimakariri report has not been without value. The City, however,,has not reached the ideal of controlling us own source of supply, and it is douWful if any contract that could be secured from the Government would 06 comparable- with the attractive potentialities that were offered by the Otararoa development of the Waimakariri rivr." In subsequent reports the necessity for an assured supply of electricity is , again and again emphasised. In 1929, an attempt was made to repeal Section 8 of the Electric Power and Loan Empowering Act, 1902, and subsitute fresh borrowing power for the Christchurch City Council, but tfyis was not successful. { Water v. CoaL At different. times in recent years, the establishment of a steam'.stand-by plant in the City has been considered, as an alternative by the Council. The generation of electricity by steam is technically aa highly developed as the hydro-electric generation. The choice betwen the two has become simply a question of relative costs to the consumer. If the power is generated more cheaply by water, then that is the more favoured scheme; if more cheaply by coal, then that is the better. There is, however, one' fact that must .bo - more and more deeply considered ill the future: generation by coal consumes a natural resource that can never be replaced, but nothing .is- lost. ia generation by water power. The international cable news appearing in this issue is published by arrangement with the Australian Press' Association and the Sun-Herald New» Servioe, Limited.