WAIPORI FALLS POWER COMPANY

Evening Star, Issue 12308, 24 September 1904, Page 5

WAIPORI FALLS POWER COMPANY

RATEPAYERS' ASSOCIATION PROTEST. The following letter was recently forwarded to the Premier by the Ratepayers' Association : Dunedin, 17th September, 1904. The Right Hon. R. J. Seddon, P.a, Premier, Wellington. —Waipori Falls Company's Bfll.— Sir,—l trust you will pardon the liberty I now take in addressing you more fully m regard to this matter than I was able to do in my letter of this morning. .The City Council are being blamed, and their case is being prejudiced, because thev did not acquire these rights when they had the oportunity of doing so some three years ago. Tho fact is, the Council appointed two experts to report in regard to the advisability of bringing in water from the Waipori for the generation of electricity. These experts reported adversely in regard to the Waipori, and recommended another scheme which is not likely to produce the results they predicted. The nature of the report left the City Council no choice but to drop the Waipori scheme and adopt that which their experts recommended. The Waipori rights thereafter fell into the bands of the syndicate, who are at present endeavoring to pass a Bill through Parliament empowering them to supply not only power but light a3 well to Dunedin and the surrounding districts. It is evident now that cheap power can be obtained from the Waipori. This being so, we do not object to the company being empowered to enter Dunedin for the purpose of supplying this power to factories, etc., but as citizens we earnestly hope they will not be allowed to compete with or do anything that will tend to render useless or unprofitable our gasworks, in which a very considerable amount of the citizens' money has been invested. As an aditional reason why the Waipori Company should not be allowed to supply light, we beg leave t<i state that the City Council will have as much surplus power from the scheme upon which they have entered as will supply any demand that may spring up for lighting by electricity. I would also respectfully point out thai - the clause empowering the company to open up our streets without the consent and supervision of the Council is a step in the direction of taking away from the people the control of their own property, and, in effect, would hand over our streets to this company to use them at their own will. The Board it is proposed to set up could not deal with this matter, unless through officials appointed by them to report on each separate application to open up a street and to see that the work of opening up and reinstating was properly done This means that money would have to bo raised from some source or other for the payment of these officials, and for which no provision has been made. If the matter were left in the hands of the City Council these duties could be performed by their present staff. The citizens also view with considerable alarm tho proposal to put at a very short distance undrr the surf too of our streets, and m close proximity to our gas and water mains, the additional cable which the company will require. Already Parliament has authorised the City Council to lay underground a cable carrying electricity for the tramway system, and also cables for the disposal of their surplus electrical power. Now * the Waipori Company are asking to be empowered to introduce a third. We are advised that there is a considerable amount of danger both to life and property from even one cable. This we consider to be a further reason why tho control oi our streets, should bo left in the hands of tho City Council. It is now recognised by the companv that if tho Bill before Parliament emerges with a clause empowering them to dispose of electricity for lighting purposes the City Council will be compelled to purchase their rights. The rrcro insertion of such a clause in the Bill means a present to the company of anything up to £30,000. This contingency is casing considerable anxiety and disquierndo in the public mind. In case it should become necessary for tho City Council to take the step indicated above, we venture to suggest that the method of arriving at the price to be paid to the Waipori Company should be mado as simple and as inexpensive as possible. Your experience makes it unnecessary to say that not only the Government but all public bodies as well are extremely unsuccessful in their attempts to defend claims for compensation. A clause fixing the price to be paid to the company at the amount legitimately expended by them plus whatever percentage Parliament may think right and reasonable would soem to be a jus;t and equitable method of determinig this tion. We, the citizens of Dunedin, hold in vciy grateful remembrance the valuable services you have rendered us in the pant in connection with Drainage Board matters, and, remembering these, we are emboldened again to approach you in our extremity, and pray you to see that no injustice is" done to us, and that as a community we are not put at the mercy of the present syndicate, or anv trust or company, to whom they may hereafter dispose of their rights.—l have, etc., JOS Rill MIIATS3, President Ratepayers and Householders' Association. The following is a copy of the communication sent by the Association to the City members:— Sir,—l have the honor to infoim you that the following resolution was passed by the Executive of the Ratepayers' and Householders' Association at their meeting held last evening:—"Ratepayers and householders of Dunedin alarmed at and strongly object to power being granted to Waipori Falls Company to enter Dunedin and compete with Corporation Gasworks for lighting, etc. ; also to taking control of streets out of Council's hands, as company's operations dangerous to life and property." Trust you will strenuously oppose interests of citizens being sacrificed in any way. Josetci Mii.nes, President, Executive of tho Ratepayers ■ and Householders' Association. The following are some of the replies received : From Mr J. A. Millar:—"Your favor to hand, and I have to thank you for same, and I will attend to the matters mentioned when the Bill comes before us." From Mr J. F. Arnold:—"Yours of tho 17th inst. re Waipori Empowering Bill duly to hand, for which many thanks. I am watching the progress of this Bill with the greatest possible interest, and when it comes before the House, together with the evidence thereon, your Association can depend on me doing my best in the interests of the citizens." From Mr H. D. Bedford :—" I have, after hearing the evidenoe, decided to oppose the Waipori Bill." THE CASE FOR THE CITY. His Worship the Mayor and the chairman of tho Tramways Committee have forwarded to members of Parliament a joint reply, as under, to the circular of the chairman of the Waipori Power Company : With reference to a letter of the 15th inst., forwarded to you froinf the Waipori Fajls Electric Power Company, and signed by Mr Frank Oakden, the best reply is. that gentleman's admission that the Duutdm City Council wmte the company on " August 16, 1903," asking them to put their water rights under offer to the Council, and that the company " did not reply." It is true, as Mr Oakden states, that Mx Christie (cow Mayor of Dunedin) expressed an opinion on •'4th March, 1903, that the Council might some day purchase the company's rights, but in the meantime it did not require thian," It is also true that a fortnigui later the Corporation requested the company in writing to place their rights under , offer, and that no rep.y up to the present 1 has been received. Mr Oakden reproduces certain remarks made by Cr Scott at a meeting of the Council he.d on the 14th inst., and in so doing severs them from their contexts. 1 The question before the Council was the reception of a letter from a private citizen suggesting negotiations for the purchase of the Waipori rights. The motion agreed to by the Council was that tie letter j be simply " received," and Cr Scott prefaced 1 the remarks mooted bx Mr Oakden hy six-

ing that if the Waipori Company's directors would make a direct offer, to the Council, then he ■would be quite* wiDirig to meet them. . ,

The City Council of Dunedin, under the sanction and authority of Parliament, have placed the citizens under very serious financial obligations, and are carrying out works to meet present and future public requirements of the Citj'. The Waipori Company are now seeking to obtain statutory authority to provide those requirements, and the Dunedin City Council therefore submit that this power cannot be granted to the company without doing a verv serious injury to the City.—Yours faithfully (Signed), T. B. Cubjstie, Mayor of* Dunedin; Joseph Braithwaite, councillor.