KAINGA ROAD POWER

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29190, 28 April 1960, Page 18

KAINGA ROAD POWER

Council Protest To Minister

Kainga road, beyond Kainga settlement, is still without an electricity supply, so the Waimairi County Council decided to express its concern at the position to the Minister of Electricity (Mr Watt). The council is to protest to the Minister at “the inability of the North Canterbury Electric Power Board to supply people on Kainga road with electric power.” The move was Initiated by Cr. A. A. Adock. He said the council had not been treated with “honesty and sincerity” by the power board. Cr. Adcock said letters from the Minister in February said the board had advised him that work on the Kainga road would be completed “in the coming autumn months.”

Another letter, written by the members for Hurunui (Mr W. H. Gillespie) said the power board had given an undertaking more than three years ago that it was going to supply electricity to the area immediately, Cr. Adcock said. He said it seemed Mr Gillespie had been “led astray” by the power board by telling him it was waiting for the council to cut down some trees to let power lines go through. However, the trees had been cut down two and a half years ago. The power board had deceived the Minister, the council and the residents of the road, he added. Cr. J. I. Colligan said: “It lacks as though the power board has been shelving this thing long enough.

“These people are only nine miles from the Square and they are still burning candles—it is a ridiculous situation.

“We should ask the Minister to force the power board to put power there,” Cr. Colligan added.