The Press MONDAY, MARCH 19, 1956. Pots and Kettles

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27921, 19 March 1956, Page 10

The Press MONDAY, MARCH 19, 1956. Pots and Kettles

Three weeks after the State Hydroelectric Department ordered supply authorities to cut the use of power by 20 per cent., the Christchurch Municipal Electricity Department still has ho effective quota rationing system in force. Account forms sent out last week have a space for the consumer’s quota to be shown; but in many cases, if not in all, the space is blank. These consumers will have to wait another two months, presumably, to be summoned formally into the rationing scheme. And at the meeting of the Christchurch City Council lasi Monday, Cr. J. Mathison, M.P., had the hardihood to accuse the State Hydro-electric Department of mismanagement and dilatoriness in handling the power shortage! The politician’s rhetoric is mocked by the past as well as the present performance of the supply authority of which Mr Mathison is a member. “If we had been warned of any “ danger ”, he said, “ we could have “ introduced modified rationing “ months ago and conserved the “water in the lakes. Preparations “ should have been made for the “ eventualities now upon us Admirably spoken. But in all the previous power shortages the Christchurch City Council has been warned of the danger in ample time, has taken months rather than weeks to bring its consumption to somewhere near the allocations, and has resisted advice to introduce individual consumer rationing or has introduced it too late—and so has been responsible in no small measure for the winter shortages that have ensued. On more than one occasion councillors have expressed a preference for “ a little “gamble on the weather”; repeatedly they have adjusted cuts and restrictions in their area according to their own opinions on the state of the water storage rather than to their duty to keep consumption within the allocations fixed by the department. The Christchurch City Council has never yet, in all these years of shortage, kept its consumption of power within the prudent levels fixed by the State Hydroelectric Department; and for Mr Mathison to claim that it would have done so this year, if warned earlier of the danger, is arrant hypocrisy. On its past inglorious performance in the handling of power shortages, the Christchurch City Council would have been the first to complain if the State Hydro-electric Department had called for ratidning while there was an outside chance—let alone a reasonable one—of summer and autumn rains filling the lakes.