ELECTRIC POWER LOAN

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 131, 30 November 1926, Page 10

ELECTRIC POWER LOAN

EXTENDING THE SYSTEM

HUTT .VALLEY PROPOSAL.

[Ratepayers in the Hutt Valley Power Board district will to-morrow be asked to vote upon the proposal for a further loau of £150,000 to extend the reticulation system. The board has already borrowed £264,000, but so keen has been the demand for electric light and power that tho whole of this money has been absorbed, and if progress is to continue further capital must be obtained. An indication of the progress made is obtainable from the numbers of consumers. On 31st March, 1925, there were 1356; on 31st March, 1926, 3892; and on 30th November, 5200. This month about 200 applications for light and power were receive'!. Units of power sold in the April-September period of this year were 102 per cent, more than for the corresponding period of last year.

Apart from the demand from present residents for light and power the board wishes to have capital to reticulate nowly-settled areas. In the . newlysettled area of the Hutt Valley alone there are eighteen miles of streets. The board is required to pledge a rate as security for the loan, but it is not anticipated that there will be any need to collect this rate. No rate has been, collected hitherto, and the new business is expected to be fully as profitable aa the old. Revenue hitherto has exceeded the estimates by a considerable amount, and, with careful management, it should continue on this satisfactory basis, providing sufficient to pay all loan charges as well as the cost of administration and renewals.