Fuel and Power

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27734, 11 August 1955, Page 12

Fuel and Power

The discussion at the meeting of the council of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce showed that the chamber shares the interest now being taken in making fuller use of the resources of the gas industry of New Zealand. The Associated Chambers of Commerce recently urged that housing schemes and public buildings under construction or to be constructed in the next five years should be equipped for gas waterheating and gas cooking. Pointing out that the gas industry had a surplus capacity and was capable of taking some of the “heat load ”, the association said it was anomalous that the gas industry should be debarred from obtaining consumers in State houses. In a reply to the association, the Minister of Works (Mr Goosman) mentioned action taken by the Government 18 months ago on government buildings which had- “resulted in the diversion of “ substantial electrical demands to “either coal or gas”. The Minister of Housing (Mr Sullivan) replied that a block of State flats to be constructed in Wellington would be heated by gas; the general question of using gas in State housing schemes was “ receiving the atten- “ tion of the Government ”, The Associated Chambers of Commerce are clearly right in believing that obvious uses for gas in place of electricity are to be found in government buildings and State housing settlements in cities and towns where there are gas works. Gas used in such places for cooking and water-heating would conserve electricity for industry and for rural areas where it is impracticable to heat water or cook by gas. The Minister of Works apparently agrees; for while he emphasised that sometimes the use of coal or gas instead of electricity results in higher capital and operating costs, he said he believed that “ the con- “ sideration of the national economy “demands that, within reason, this “factor [*'.:ould] be discounted”. With so much claimed and conceded, and with the Minister of Works enunciating a policy which puts the public interest above considerations of small economic advantage, there seem good reasons for hoping for a wider use of existing gas sources and consequently some relief from the growing demand for electricity—a relief that would be particularly welcome in the North Island. But such hopes may be defeated, and certainly will be discouraged, if electricity supply authorities continue to discriminate against gas users. There would be justifiable

exasperation (which would be politically embarrassing to Christchurch City Council members who are also members of Parliament) if State house tenants using gas for cooking were charged more than other consumers for electricity for lighting. Whatever may once have been the case for discriminating in

favour of the “all-electric home”, discrimination is clearly against the public interest now. It would be a pity if the campaign to spread the “ heat load ” were hampered by outmoded discriminatory practices by some electricity distributing authorities.