THE CHANGE-OVER

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1929, Page 10

THE CHANGE-OVER

AHEAD OF PROGRAMME

TREATMENT OF CONSUMERS

NO APPEALS TO BOAED

Under the Ordcr-in-Counuil granted the City Council in 1925, the changeover of'the oleetrical reticulation and installations must bo completed -within ten years, and already the greater part of the work, by far tho greater area of the city and suburbs, have been covered, and tho whole programme should be cleared up well inside tho time limit, probably with a

few. years to spare.

At present work is in hand at Wadestown, practically tho last of the areas x > at. the northern end of the city, and a start.is being mafe in tho Moriiington, ■ Vogeltown, and Brooklyn areas, to tho .south. There will then remain a fairly densely populated patch of Berhampore, Oriental Bay, and Koseneath. The mid-city change-over is going ahead more or less steadily, for though- the ■ truo change-over has not reached the business streets, the new power is applied as each new building is erected, whore there are .extensive alterations, or'where new machinery is installed in existing buildings. It would bo obviously uneconomic to put in an in-

stallation to operate.on 105 volts with the change-over a year or two ahead at most. The progress map, therefore, shows most of the suburban area coloured red, and red lingers and patches Scattered generously right through the business and manufacturing areas of tho city. " In'such districts as Moriiington

and Vogeltown a great deal of street work has to be done for comparatively little loading, possibly not more than may be required for a couple of midcity blocks, so it is in the city proper that the- really heavy change-over work has to bo done, though tho policy of dealing with all new premises 'at ''once will materially shorten the time required when the suburbs arc cleared up and the city area is tackled as a whole. A GENEROUS INTERPRETATION.

"In regard to a complaint made in "The Post" a few days ago that consumers were not being treated fairly in regard to the change-over of vacuum cleaners, motors which are fitted with small transformers in place of being rewound, it was pointed out to a ' "Post" reporter to-day that, far from the council - being unreasonable and acting high-handedly in the matter, a ■ very generous interpretation was given "to the regulations, and the provisions ..-, uiider which tho change-over is being , carried out. These mado it clear that •the department would undertake to fit •for the new\voltage only such appara--tus as was authorised, and probably ninety-nine cleaners and irons out of .every'hundred were simply purchased .and used without any application or notification to the department. If, then, the council wished to stick to the letter of regulations very few cleaners Or irons would be dealt with at the council's expense. In a good many cases householders, who had applied for . permission to instal radiators during the period when there was a power shortage had beef instructed not to do so, but put them in, notwithstanding. In such cases the department declined ■to make the alterations now necessary.

Although a good deal of criticism was levelled against the department in regard to the change-over, the fact was that if there was any give and take it was mostly that tho department g^ave away a good deal and took' a!'good many growls in the course of the work. Consumers who approached the department in a? reasonable manner were as a rulo very reasonably met, and though a big fuss had been made as to the necessity of setting up an appeal board, so far not one appeal had been made.