SHORTAGE MAY BE GREATER

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25206, 10 June 1947, Page 6

SHORTAGE MAY BE GREATER

WARNING GIVEN BY MR LYONS NECESSITY FOR DRASTIC CUTS “The crisis is very real, very threatening, and, much as I am diffident of saying so, threatens to be more serious than it is at present,” said Mr M. E. Lyons, chairman of the South Island Regional Committee of the Power Supply Authorities’ Association, in a broadcast address last evening. Mr Lyons said the shortage at the moment was more or less an act of God, although those in close touch with the distribution of electricity had expected serious trouble in peak periods. Knowing the seriousness of the problem, he had called a regional conference of supply authorities in February, and it was then agreed that only a miracle could save the South Island from cuts that would slow down the wheels of industry and make the lot of the mother 10 times as hard. That miracle had not happened. The State Hydro-electric Department had sent to the conference a senior officer, who was very much impressed with the prospect of a shortage. Mr Lyons said the Waitaki river was now running very low, and that Lake Coleridge was falling at a rapid rate. How long the stored water would last would depend largely on the sacrifices all were prepared to make. The need for eking out that supply of water was urgent, insistent. All could help. , _, The cuts that the Christchurch City Council had had to impose were drastic, and he could not even promise that they would not be more, drastic, but he wanted to assure listeners that they were necessary, said Mr Lyons.