ELECTRIC SUPPLY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 33, 8 August 1923, Page 11

ELECTRIC SUPPLY

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS DECIDED

POSITION IN WANGANUI

DISTRICT.

Important questions relating to the supply of electricity in the Wanganui district were decided in a judgment delivered by Mr. Justice Chapman at the bupremo _ Court yesterday afternoon, .the questions arose as a result of an originating summons brought by the Wanganui Borough Council as against the Gonville fow'n Board, the WanganuiRangitikei Electric Power Board, and the Attorney-General.

A local Act, called the Wanganui Suburbs Act, 1903, empowered the borough council, said his Honour, to light the borough with gas or electricity, and to supply gas and electricity for lighting, domestic, and motive power purposes within certain geographical limits, which included the town district of Gonville.

Section 30 of the Act provided that notwithstanding anything contained in any Act of the General Assembly it shonld not be lawful for any person or (company other than the Borough Council for a period of 42 years, from 20th November, 1903, to establish gas works or works for the supply of electric lighting, or power or manufacture or supply gas or electricity for lighting, heating, or motive power within the limits of the Act, .without the joint consent of the Borough Council and the - local authority or authorities having jurisdiction within the prescribed limits. On 23rd January, 1912, a deed of agreement was entered into between the corporation of tho Borough of Wanganui and the Gonville Town Board. It recited that the Corporation and the Town Board had agreed that the Corporation should supply gas to the district of the Town Board for a period of 21 years on stated conditions. It was then agreed that for 21 years from Ist October, 1912, the Corporation should supply gas to any person in the town district from mains as now laid, who should enter into an agreement with the Corporation for such supply. The clauses, down to paragraph 14 inclusive, related exclusively to the supply of gas. Paragraph fifteen, which alone mentioned the subject of electricity, provided that the Town Board should not, during, the period of 21 years, or any extended period, install or supply or sanction, or permit any person, corporation, or company, to install or supply any electrical or other system of lighting in the district of the Town Board.

Several questions were put by the originating summons. They were:—(l) Is paragraph 15 of the deed of 23rd January, 1913, valid and binding? (2) If it is valid can the Power 'Board and the Town Board be restrained from respectively .supplying or receiving electric light without the permission of the Borough of Wanganui—(a) In supplying individual consumers, and (b) in supplying the Town Board either' for its own consumption or for distribution?' (3) In view of the provisions of the Act of 1903, can the Power Board be restrained from —(a) erecting poles and apparatus in the town district for the purpose of supplying light or power to the district affected by the local Act, or the Gonville Town District, or (b) supplying electric light or power within such district? (4) Can the borough supply Gonville Town District, or any other contiguous district with electric light or power—(a) without obtaining a license under the Public Works, Amendment Act, 1911; (b) with such a license? .: ••

In replying to" the first question, his Honour said that he did-not think, that section 15 of the deed could-have any restrictive effect. The Town Board and the inhabitants were, free-to purchase electric energy from the Power Board, and he could not conceive that any question could arise as to how they might use it. The other questions were answered as follow:—"(2) I do not think that any restraint can be put on the Power Board or the Gonville Town Board. (3) I do not think that the Power Board can be from doing any of the acts referred to in the third question. (4) I do not think that the Electric Power Boards Act, 1918, goes the length' of prohibiting the supplying of electric light by Wanganui Borough to Gonville Town District with the consent of the local authority." '-■'.- At the hearing, Mr. C. P. Skerrett, with him Mr. W. J. Treadwell, appeared for the Wanganui Borough, Mr. C. H. Izard for the Town Board and the Power Board, and Mr. A. Fair for the Attorney-General.