THE POWER SUPPLY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 149, 25 June 1943, Page 5

THE POWER SUPPLY

SOUTH ISLAND DISCUSSION (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 24. Considerable apprehension at the prospective serious shortage of power in the South Island is expressed in a resolution adopted by the regional conference of all members of the New Zealand Electrical Power Boards and Supply Authorities Association in the South Island. The conference appointed a committee of ten members representing the power boards and supply authorities to review the power situation in general and formulate proposals for obviating the difficulties confronting the industry. The committee will cooperate with two similar committees m the North Island. The administrative control of the supplying of power was the subject of another resolution passed by the conference. It was stated that the conference strongly reaffirmed a recommendation made in the'l93s bulk supply report that administrative control of the generation of the electric power supply should be so adjusted that the supply authorities, as partners in the industry, should be given definite status in regard to decisions affecting all policy matters and plant installations for future supply. Among the subjects discussed were the power supply position now and after the war, plans for rehabilitating the industry and the part that electricity will play in the general scheme of post-war rehabilitation and the reticulation of sparsely-settled areas. A lengthly report reviewing the growth of the shortage of bulk elec- | tricity supplies in New Zealand, the | extent of the shortage in the North and South Islands, prospects for the future, and the effects on national rehabilitation was discussed. The report stated that the general margin of safety in the South Island was larger than in the North Island, but the basic causes which had brought about the North Island's difficulties applied with equal force and would, if not corrected, introduce the same conditions. Reference to the shortage of electric power in the North Island was made at the annual meeting of the Buller Progress League, and it was suggested that the Government be urged to investigate the harnessing of the Buller River before a similar position arose in the South Island, states the "Nelson [Evening Mail." Some members said that extraordinary difficulties would be encountered in harnessing the Buller. Mr. J. Ward said that Nelson was relying on the Cobb scheme, but that would not be sitfficient to supply both districts. He considered that the harjnessing of the Gowan would be better I than the Cobb, and would have had the support of the Minister of Works if the Cobb scheme had not been so , far advanced. The Mayor, Mr. J. M.*' Robertson, suggested that the erection of a steam plant at Charleston should be considered by tho* Government.