ELECTRICITY AND THE PEOPLE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 207, 29 May 1936, Page 10

ELECTRICITY AND THE PEOPLE

The interprovincial conference of the New Zealand Fanners’ Union at Feilding has voted for the nationalisation .of electricity supply. There is a growing public sentiment in regard to the anomalies existing in connection with the supply ‘of electricity. Whether the remedy for these lies in the complete nationalisation of the business, as advocated by the conference, or in a radical reconstitution of the present system of decentralised control, in the direction of reducing the multiplicity of boards and the high overhead cost of administration involved in this multiplicity, is a question for further consideration. Something ought to be done to minimise the friction that occurs too frequently between municipalities and power boards, and between local supply authorities and the central department. ’lt is also a question whether in a national scheme for the development of hydro-electric power, to which the country as a whole subscribes in taxation, the price of electricity should vary so much between districts—Wellington and the Hutt Valley, for instance. The advocate of nationalisation no doubt envisages a nationalised scale of prices, although distributing authorities which have contrived by prudent administration to keep down costs ought not to be robbed of the fruits of their good management. At all events the whole system is due for overhaul.