GREY ELECTRIC POWER BOARD

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21867, 21 August 1936, Page 4

GREY ELECTRIC POWER BOARD

APPROVAL OP FORtfHOUR WEEK MONTHLY MEETING HELD Approval of the principle of a 40hour week for employees was expressed by the Grey Electric Power Board at its monthly meeting on Wednesday night. Mr W. H. Parfitt presided. . ■ The arranging of conditions tinder the new system was left to the chairman and executive officers of' the board.

It was decided to co-operate with the Westland Provincial Organisation, New Zealand Centennial. Messrs Parfltt ahd J. Unwin Were appointed to represent, the board at any meeting of the body. The report of the finance committee said that the revenue for the month was: Town, £2120 4s sd; country, £IBOO 7S 8d; total, £3920 12s Id. The Rotomanu loan was almost assured, and since the Loans Board approval had been obtained it seemed clear that the sum *to be found from revenue would be about £2OOO.

Accounts unpaid amounting to £3195 8s 3d and paid amounting to £IBBB 8s 6d were passed for payment. Because of the important business pending between the board and departments in Wellington it was decided to send two members to the annual conference of power boards. Messrs J. Mulcare and J. B. Kent were appointed delegates. A recommendation of the financial committee that the terms of the Rotomanu loan be such as would repay the loan*over a term of 10 years, namely half-yearly redemptions of £350, was adopted. The report of the engineer, Mr S. Trotter 1 , said that the total number of units generated during the four weeks was £956,520. The highest weekly load factor was 66.3 per cent., and the lowest 62.4 per cent. The contractor for the Rotomanu line had poles erected as far as Moaha and cable strung to Stoney Creek. Progress was satisfactory although the wet weather had made working conditions poor. Since last meeting 35 new applications for supply had been received, making the total to date 3689. Twenty-seven new consumers had been connected, and this brought the total number of consumers up to 3710. The total load for the month was 82 k.w. The total load at the last meeting of the board was 12,112 k.w. The total was 12,194 k.w.