POOR OUTLOOK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 135, 9 June 1945, Page 8

POOR OUTLOOK

GAS AND POWER

ECONOMY ESSENTIAL

A howling southerly with heavy ram squalls kept most of Wellington inside the home last night. But there was little comfort about that: gas pressure at a bare minimum on lowerlying parts, preventing the use of heaters; grates bare in many cases of coal; and electricity supplies in such a parlous state that citizens had been warned that.the use of electric heaters would be a disservice to the community generally. And so to bed.

Coal supplies for making gas are practically exhausted, and pressure has been just about sufficient to * cook meals, provided a generous dash of patience is one of the ingredients thereof.

The Wellington Gas Company advises that a supply of gas will be available to consumers before meal times over the weekend and that otherwise a restricted service will be maintained.

Restrictions on the use of electricity should be tighter during the weekend because, to conserve coal and water, the peak load has to be kept down to a lower level than during the week, when a heavy industrial load is being carried.

Domestic users are therefore expected to economise even more rigidly, and not use electricity indiscriminately just because the industrial load is lifted. ~-■'.

In the Hutt Valley Electric Power Board's area an order applies requiring the closing of all factories between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. during June and July. The only exceptions will be where continuous processing is in operation, for which cases permission must be obtained from the Power Board.