POWER SUPPLY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 41, 17 August 1939, Page 23

POWER SUPPLY

SHORTAGE LIKELY

(By telegraph,). (Special to the 'Evening PQst.")

BLENHEIM, This Day

Foreseeing a shortage of electric power as a result of the demands which will be made on the supply by the Woodbourne Air Base and an expected increase in population when the South Island Main Trunk is completed, the Marlborough Power Board has decided to request the Minister of Public Works (the Hon, R. Semple) to augment the supply of electricity in Marlborough. This decision followed a direction given by the Minister himself during his visit to Blenheim at the weekend. The Minister said that he could foresee the day when electric power in Marlborough would be insufficient for all demands, and he hinted at the possibility of either the Cobb River scheme in Nelson being extended to Marlborough or of a further scheme being developed at the Clarence River to link up with Lake Coleridge on the south and Waihopai (Marlborough) on the north. In any case he assured Mr. H. J- Stace, chairman of the Marlborough Power Board, that his Department was fully alive to the position, but he would like the board to submit concrete representations and evidence so that steps could be taken as early as possible to meet the situation.

It is estimated that the Woodbourne Air Base alone will mean an increase in population of between 500 and 600 people, while as many more are expected from various railway works on the completion of the South Island Main Trunk.