RESTRICTIONS ON POWER

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26120, 24 May 1950, Page 5

RESTRICTIONS ON POWER

Sir. —I am in sympathy with “Treat ’em All the Same.” I. like many other farmers’ wives, use a heat storage. It is our only means of cooking. With continual cuts these ranges rapidly become too cool for cooking. During the week-end the power was cut from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m., and every night throughout the week from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. We have a set guarantee, and in spite of these enforced cuts and repeated appeals to save power, we still have to pay the full guarantee and put up with a cold range. I feel sure that if the North Canterbury Power Board would place us on or near a flat rate basis during the power shortage, consumers would willingly save power without inconvenience to themselves.—Yours, etc., BARBARA WILKINSON. Domett. May 22, 1950. Sir, —We in the district of the North Canterbury Electric Power Board have the power shut off from 12.30 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, and from 11.30 p.m. to 3 a.m. every night. I wonder if the board members and engineer k*ow that a British Rugby team is touring New Zealand, and that we are unable to hear the broadcast of the games. I suggest the power being switched on at 2.30 p.m. on the days of the tests and Canterbury matches, and that it be left on until 1.30 a.m. on alternate Fridays to allow those who wish to do so to attend an evening’s entertainment such as a a dance or other social function. To make up the power thus used, why not half an hour’s black-out every night some time between 6.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.?—Yours, etc., HYDRO. Cheviot, May 22, 1950. Sir.—ln to-day’s paper is Mr Rasmussen’s (Springs-Ellesmere Power Board) reply to my letter of May 1. I would like to point out that the letter he mentioned was dated May 8. and we did not receive it till after the notice in the daily papers dated May 11. I am not quite as dumb as he would like to make out.—Yours, etc., HOUSEWIFE. Halswell, May 22, 1950.