POWER FAILURE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 152, 30 June 1938, Page 22

POWER FAILURE

ALTERNATIVE SUPPLY

DRAINAGE BOARD TO ACT

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) "CHRISTCHURCH, June 29.

>. Efforts to arrange for an adequate supply of electric power for its pumping stations in the event of failure of the usual supply are to be made by the Christchurch Drainage Board.

Reporting to a meeting of the board the engineer, Mr. Cullens, said that if the recent failure at Lake Coleridge had lasted much longer the city's sewerage system would have been, "in a dreadful mess." - The board instructed Mr. Cullens to arrange a conference with, the municipal electricity department's engineer and the engineers of the Christchurch City Council and' the Christchurch Tramway Board to discuss methods of ensuring an adequate supply of power in. emergencies. , Reference to the recent failure at Lake Coleridge was made in a report presented to, the boardby Mr. Cullens. The chairman, 1 Mr. £. H. S. Hamilton: Has this board . any right of priority in the use of;power? "There is no definite arrangement," replied Mr. Cullens. Mr.-Hamilton: We have had a warning. What do you suggest we should do? Mr. J. W. Beanland remarked that when the new power contract had been, made by the city with the Public Works Department there was a stipulation made by the Department that the city should not have an emergency plant. It had been a very grave mistake, he added, for the Public Works Department to shift its standby plant from Lyttelton to the West Coast. That had not been realised when the plant was being moved, but it was now clear that a mistake had been made. It was imperative that the board should have the first claim on power. On his motion it was decided to approve the suggestion fori a conference.