Dunedin to ask to use lighting

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33424, 4 January 1974, Page 10

Dunedin to ask to use lighting

New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, January 3.

The Dunedin City Council seems certain to apply to the Electricity Department for permission to use its decorative lights in the city during Festival Week, which begins on January 26.

i The acting chairman of the (council’s electricity committee (Cr C. G. Skeggs) said (today that the committee (definitely would seek a dispensation from the Minister (of Electricity (Mr McGuigan). Many Dunedin people as well as thousands of visitors would be disappointed if this (were not granted, he said. The lighting restrictions, (which take effect on Monday, (will also mean that Dunedin’s (Christmas lights will have to be switched off about a 'fortnight earlier than usual. Mr McGuigan said this evening that applications for

dispensations from the lighting restrictions must be made to the Electricity Department. These applications would be considered in relation to the oil situation at the time and lake storage levels which, he said, were disappointing. The Government, in imposing the restrictions, had appreciated that a number of local bodies had planned special functions involving decorative lighting and floodlighting. said Mr McGuigan. It had not been the intention of the restrictions to curb particularly the lighting which would be involved in these functions, and he hoped that the restrictions would not have to be continued for a long period. If the department received a large number of applications for dispensations from the restrictions, they would be referred to him.