The Evening Star MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1929. THE MONOWAI MISTAKE.

Evening Star, Issue 20365, 23 December 1929, Page 8

The Evening Star MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1929. THE MONOWAI MISTAKE.

The expected has happened nt last. Our evening contemporary in Invercargill is advocating that the Government should take over the Monowai hydroelectric power scheme from the Southland Power Board. Its contention is based on the alleged knowledge on the part of the Public Works Department that the scheme was on so ambitious a scale that there was no chance of its paying for many years. The Government, it is claimed, should therefore have intervened at the time and modified to Southland’s circumstances the big scheme which our contemporary declares was “foisted” on it. The capital cost of Monowai now exceeds a million and a-half sterling, while the cost of generating per unit is just double that of the next most expensive plant in New Zealand in that respect, according to comparative tables issued by the chief electrical engineer of the Public Works Department. A point has been reached at which further economies by the Southland Power Board would, so it is contended, impair efficiency of -necessary service, while the district served is up in arms against the strain of providing £50,000 a year in rates towards the annual deficiency in the finances, this contribution being particularly resented in areas which so far have not been provided with facili ties for using current. The admission is made that the present Government had nothing to do with what has led to the present unsatisfactory state *.f affairs; also that the late Government sought mildly to deter Southland from embarking on anv but the far less ambitious alternative scheme which was put forward as more suited to the district’s needs and capabilities than the one adopted. Rather late in the

day the question is being, asked why the Power, Board was allowed by the authorities to venture far out of its depth. The only answer ono can give is that Governments, possibly for fear of incurring odium and losing votes, have been far too chary in repressing the aspirations—and borrowing powers —of local authorities. In 1928 local body indebtedness in New Zealand was about 120 per cent, greater than- in 1920, while indebtedness of the Central Government was about 36 per cent, greater. Tho proper tost of expenditure is less its nature than its effects on economic welfare. The economic welfare of Invercargill, with its double rating, and of its hinterland, protest ing vociferously against its rating, has unquestionably been shaken by the Southland Power Board. A strong Government might have intervened' in time, taking the risk of odium from an ill-informed but headstrong section of that district. Latterly some supervision has been assumed by the Central Government over tho borrowing activities of local bodies, but we are not aware of the adoption of any reliable tests as to whether or not new loans would in each case raise the total volume of indebtedness beyond what is warranted in tho social interest—which is the vital point to bo considered. A district’s desire for progress is commendable, but it may bo bought at too high a cost. An example—trite perhaps—is furnished by a steamer’s fuel bill, which soars out of proportion for every successive increase of speed beyond the normal.