MR BATTERSBY TO RETIRE FROM M.E.D.

Press, Volume C, Issue 29671, 15 November 1961, Page 5

MR BATTERSBY TO RETIRE FROM M.E.D.

Mr G. H. Battersby, general manager of the Municipal Electricity Department Of the Christchurch City Council. will retire at the end of this year pleased that he can withdraw when there are no restrictions. For much of his time in senior offices he has been plagued by the necessity for power rationing or cuts. Yesterday Mr Battersby said that he would always be grateful for the co-opera-tion given by consumers in those difficult times. That was why he was so pleased to see unrestrained use of electricity possible and the continuing expansion of the M.E.D.

Mr Battersby’s name became well known to the public through his appeals for the careful use of power during the shortages (through inadequate generating capacity and water storage) from 1951 until Roxburgh helped the winter load in 1957, Even as late as last year he was appealing for co-operation when pylons from the south were carried away, and Christchurch depended largely on Lake Coleridge. But during that time the M.E.D. undertaking was expanding rapidly. Industrial and domestic demand rose steeply, with the construction of new factories and housing, and there were huge extensions to reticulation. Early in his term as manager Mr Battersby introduced ripple control of water heaters to reduce peak demands. “Technically this has been a great success, but I am afraid it has cast a shadow on my reputation with householders,” he said yesterday. Outside Meters

A more popular innovation was outside meter boxes, which saved meter readers having to enter homes. Mr Battersby said this assured regular access, and would permit greater mechanisation of accounting as the M.E.D. grew larger. The success of underground cabling in Memorial avenue, when objections had been overcome, encouraged the City Council to permit Mr Battersby also to promote this system in new subdivisions. He said this had been halted temporarily only -by difficulty in obtaining supplies of the proper cable. Mr Battersby attended the Auckland Grammar School and recalled that his father approached the headmaster (Mr T. W. Tibbs), with the request that his boy be trained for science and engineering. Mr Tibbs replied: “We can do that, but of course we will also teach him English, French, and Latin so that he can understand what science is all about.” The headmaster’s stipulations were wise. Mr Battersby won both junior and senior national scholarships of the University of New Zealand, qualified for membership of the British and New Zealand Institutions of Electrical Engineers and, a year later, also qualified as a registered accountant by correspondence lessons.

Auckland University studies were interrupted in 1915 when Mr Battersby volunteered for the Army and served for three years in Belgium and France in the Machine-gun Corns. As a ‘ cornoral in 1918 he won the Distinguished Conduct Medal “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when, regardless of the heavy fire he was under, he so skilfully handled his machine-gun as to inflict heavy losses on the enemy then massing for attack Later he accounted for five enemy machine-guns, which attempted to come into action on his immediate front. His contempt for danger was most marked throughout the day.”

After demobilisation. Mr Battersby won a scholarship to the City and Guilds erf London Engineering College where (after three years’ study) he won the honours degree in electrical engineering. On return to New Zealand he worked for three years with the Hydro-electric branch of the Public Works Department on design and drafting for the extension of the old Hora-Hora power station, and then worked on the design of the underwater tunnel, intake, and tailrace for the Lake Coleridge extensions which came into operation in 1926. In 1925, Mr Battersby joined the Christchurch City Council’s staff as assistantelectrical engineer, soon after Mr J. C. Forsyth became electrical engineer. When the later retired, in 1956, Mr Battersby became engineermanager. the title changing to general manager last year.