Cheaper Power As Pollution Cure

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 6

Cheaper Power As Pollution Cure

If electricity was made available to Canterbury power supply authorities at the same price as would be paid by the aluminium smelter at Bluff, one-fifth of the present price, the air pollution problem would be eliminated in five years, said he president (Mr I. R. Densem) at a council meeting of the Christchurch branch of the New Zealand Clean Air Society.

Highlights of the year, he said included the closing of the briquette plant at Ngakawau after the .society’s protests and appeals and a change from unsuitable coals to low-sulphur coals in most Christchurch schools.

Notwithstanding the failure of the society’s appeal on the briquette plant to the Ombudsman (Sir Guy Powles) in 1967, public opinion in the last 12 months, had assured the closing. “Perhaps the Ombudsman’s decision was legally correct, blit there is no doubt that the

public’s decision was socially correct,” he said. The smog in Christchurch on June 10 was a disgrace to the city, said Mr Densem. While the hills and country areas were bathed in sunshine, a quarter of a million city residents were deprived of sun and clean air. There was no doubt that the society’s publicity over the last four months had helped to create public opinion in favour of some action on air pollution. Mr Densem was re-elected president, with Mr P. V. Neary as vice-president.