CITY POWER POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 37, 12 August 1921, Page 6

CITY POWER POLICY

People who have been anxious about the prospect of Wellington's prompt and full utilisation of the power supply from Mangahao, and who have asked (as The Post has done) whether the City Council has had a definite policy, and what that policy is, will have felt gratified at the statement in which the' Mayor set out briefly what the Corporation proposes to do. The gist of the statement is that a scheme has been prepared for the utilisation of the supply immediately it is available, and that the scheme provides for the installation of the cables and machinery required for converting the Government'supply to suit the city's power and lighting requirements, Mr. Wright proceeds to explain briefly the form of the scheme, and says that, providing money is obtainable^ without delay to enable the new steamdriven machinery to be' brought into commission within. the next two years, the department anticipates being in a position to take over the greater portion, if not the

whole, of .its requirements from the hydro-electric supply ■ immediately the latter is 'available at Ngahauranga (where the current will be taken over from the Government mains).

On the important question of converting the city's existing consuming organisation, the proposal is to change the distributing system piecemeal, during a number of years, and to continue the supply of current of the present type to such areas—gradually growing less —as remain unconverted. This current will, under the plan outlined, be supplied indirectly from jYangahao, by the coupling of the existing generators to new electric motors, and thus transfer the present power load from coal to water. The exact economic result of the plan cannot, of course, be gauged from a bald outline, but it is evident that the proposal substitutes a peaceful revolution for the sort of cataclysmic upheaval which would have been ■ caused by an attempt to switch over to Manga,hao current at one strike. There are many people who, having a close interest in the electrical progress of the city, will desire more detail than has been given, though it may be held that no go6d purpose will be served by dressing the skeleton in all its flesh and hide and hair. The Mayor has at least satisfied a plain necessity by showing that the city authoiities are doing something—a fact which during the previous silence was not by any means generally accepted.