OLD WARNING NOTICE

Press, Volume CI, Issue 30007, 17 December 1962, Page 15

OLD WARNING NOTICE

Penalty Of £5OO An old Public Works Department “danger” notice, of about 1915. found lying in long grass near Honorata. not far from the power transmission line from Lake Coleridge. shows that the problem of vandals shooting ait insulators on power lines is not a new one. The notice announces prosecmtion of such offenders “with the utmost rigour of the Law.” with a penalty of £5OO on conviction—equivalent to £l5OO today. The notice was found recently by Mr R. S Meredith, district electrical engineer of the New Zealand Electricity Department. while on an inspection visit in the Hororata area. Mr Meredith pieces its date about 1915. Lt is about 12in by 9in. and is of baked vitreous white enamel, with black lettering. Its condition is almost as good as the day it was first put up. in spite of having lain in grass probably for many years. Wording of Notice The notice says: “Danger Live wires. Any person shooting ait insulators or otherwise damaging the transmission line, or any portaon of the electric power installation. will be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law Penalty, £5OO A reward of : (the figure has been obliterated) will be paid to any person giving information leading to a conviction By order. Lawrence Birks, electrical engineer. Public Works Depart ment.”

Birks was the first engineer in charge of the Lake Coleridge to Addington power system, said Mr Meredith. Mr Meredith thinks that the reward figure was deliberately removed, as part of a policy during the depression of discontanuir-g such rewards. The figure certainly seems to have been neatly chiselled out of the enamel, and not roughly defaced. Subsequently. all such notices about shooting at insulators were removed, as it was thought inadvisable to publicise the matter in case it “put ideas into people’s neads,” especially youths out shooting who had failed to get a rabbit, Mr Meredith said.