POWER FAILURE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20244, 23 May 1931, Page 14

POWER FAILURE.

FAULT IN TRANSMISSION LINES. . Fault in. the transmission lines from Lake Coleridge caused .. a power failure, lasting about ten minutes, at 4.40 o'clock last evening. The electric train service to Byttelton was not interrupted, as a train had arrived in Christchurch just before the power 'went off, and there was*no train going to Lyttelton at. the time. There was a little confusion on the Cranford street tram line, but as the failure lasted. approximately the time between trams, in most cases the trams went on to their normal destinations as soon as power was restored.

The trouble was somewhere in the transmission lines from Lake Coleridge power station, Mr B. G. Mac Gibbon, district electrical engineer for the Public Works Department, told a Press reporter last evening. Because of work going on at the power •house, he said, one of the three lines is at present out of commission. It seemed that something had gone wrong with one of the remaining ones, and had affected the third one also. A bird or magpie flying into the lines could cause the - trouble, said Mr MacGibbon, but as the power liad been restored so quickly, there could be nothing seriously wrong. Patrolmen went out to investigate last evening, and will make a report this morning.