DEPARTMENT’S WORK.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3463, 31 March 1930, Page 2

DEPARTMENT’S WORK.

NOT Ol'T EUR PROEI'I

Some remarks on tile prepress in dovelopinp hydro ele' trie -power .in Now Zealand wore made by tlie .Minister ol Piddle Works, the lion. IC. A. Ramsum. in In's address at the Auckland Electric Power .Hoard’s celebration.

Alter d.etaiiine the works in operalion and under construction, .the .Minister said that ho had visited all ol them, and had also heard much criticism levelled at the engineers responsible lor the development, ol the schemes. ‘-Some ol' ii may he justified, hnl ! have yet lo find tin* man who i- perl eel' he said. “J hope we never pet such a man in the Pnldic Works Department, because ii we dal there would he nothin;! tor me to do."

The enpineer-in chiot, Mr E. W . Parkerf and the chief electrical engineer, Mr E. T. .M. Kissed, who were present that afternoon, had devoted Drains and onci'i'v to the development of hydro-e!e'-trie power Visiting entrinoers from overseas had said that the New Zealand power schemes were equal to the best in the world, and some of them were even heller than iho-e in older

Tire department w'as not out for profit. In their earlier years its hydro-elect rie schemes had produced losses, because (lie department ehairyed the power hoards only what it knew the peoph' could pay. These accumulated deficits must he paid off before there could be reductions in rates, hut they were hemp: gradually eallyht up with as years went on. He looked forward to the Jiine when all the schemes would he paying. “Then.” he added, “we shall he in a position to consider whether we will lower our rates or pay off the national debt with our profits.” (Canyliter and applause.) The Minister piloted Hynres to show that since Ifl'io the capital invested in (.'overninent hydro-electric .schemes and the revenue (herefrom had shown a consistent increase. The capital in I I'-d was ei.o7s.dlS. and in 10;?!) it was es. |(i; ,7.r,. an increase of sd, per cent. Ihe corresponding revenue liymvs were L'lo!>.7>7 and L’oKl. 1-0. show iny an increase of 000 |eenl . The installed capacity of the plants was now I 1 1.777) .k .w . This was 7.'i per

cent, more Ilian at March .'tl of last year and d-ls per cent, more than in