The Press WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1951. South Island Power Supply

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26524, 12 September 1951, Page 6

The Press WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1951. South Island Power Supply

It is not easy to understand why some South Island power supply authorities have suddenly lost their enthusiasm for the conference on South Island power problems in Christchurch to-day, and the Mayor (Mr Macfarlane) seems to have every reason for proceeding with the meeting as planned. Some weeks ago the Minister in charge of the State Hydro-electric Department (Mr Goosman) suggested that the conference should be postponed until after the conference of New Zealand supply authorities at Auckland on September 24, when, he understood, the general manager of the department (Mr A. E. Davenport) would deal particularly with South Island matters. Mr Macfarlane and the City Council saw no reason for postponing the meeting; and neither at that time did the delegates, who had already received their invitations. All that has happened in the meantime, apparently, is that the department has supplied in confidence advance -information from Mr Davenport’s proposed Auckland address. It can hardly be supposed that Mr Davenport has answered all possible questions about the South Island supply now and for, say, the next 20 years. There is. much to be said for Mr Macfarlane’s view that the Christchurch meeting will be useful for clarifying and unifying South Island thought, so that the department’s clans can be better understood. But the idea behind to-day’s meeting goes a good deal further than consideration of the broad outline of the department’s planning. "The original intention of the meeting, it was reported, was that it should be a preliminary’ to forming a committee “to press the South “ Island’s claims for a more adequate power supply”. If this proposal has any merit, it means providing a method of long-term consultation in the South Island, not to seek a steam station (probably uneconomic) here or the investigation of some hydro-electric project there, but to study continuously the expanding needs of the South Island and the development of the department’s system to meet them. Such an organisation should be vigilant to see that works in progress and planned are not delayed. It should look to the future, when the big Roxburgh station will not end for all time South Island shortages but provide a breathing space of a few years during which the next big station should be built. And, in the Interval, it might be able to help in seeing that the best use is made of the available power during five difficult years. These are all matters in which the supply authorities must take a continuing interest.