GAS AND POWER AUTHORITIES

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27876, 26 January 1956, Page 14

GAS AND POWER AUTHORITIES

CO ORDINATING BODY MEETS VOLUNTARY MERGERS DESIRED (New Zeaiana Press Association) WELLINGTON. Jan. 25. The Electricity and Gas Co-ordinat-ing Committee considers that any mergers of electric supply authorities and gas undertakings would be on sounder | foundations if the details of- the merger were completed by the local organisations themselves, rather than at the direction of the committee. The chairman of the committee (Mr C. C. Holland, of Christchurch), said this tonight, after the first meeting of the committee todav. The committee was appointed to advise the Government on the steps required to ensure that essential gas works are kept operating. The dav had been spent in discussing the problem very largely in general terms, said Mr Holland. “Members are in agreement with the Minister in charge of the State Hydroelectric Department (Mr W. S. Goosman) that it is in the national interest that the larger gas undertakings and certain of the others that are efficient or could be 'made so at a reasonable cost, must remain in operation,” said Mr Holland. ‘This is essential in order to avoid undue strain on the country’s electric power supply.” Mr Holland said the committee had to decide which gasworks were essential. “We are calling on all gas undertakings to supply us with information which will enable this decision to be made in each particular case,” he said. “Members of the committee have expressed the opinion that the task of co-ordination could be materially speeded up if the gas organisations and supply authorities in each of the various centres would get together mutually.”