TREES NEAR POWER LINES

Evening Star, Issue 22272, 25 February 1936, Page 14

TREES NEAR POWER LINES

DAMAGE TD SYSTEM IN STORM

PUBLIC BODIES SEEK POWER OF REMOVAL

[Per United Press Association.]

PALMERSTON N., February 24.

Proposals to minimise the damage and loss caused during storms by the falling of trees on electrical supply lines were discussed at a conference to-day of representatives' of power boards, county councils, and municipalities, when it was decided to make representations to the Government with a view to wider powers being given supply authorities to deal with trees likely to become a menace. The delegates numbered over 50, while the Post and Telegraph and Public Works Departments were represented by six. Members of Parliament were also in attendance The conference was the sequel to the hurricane which swept Manawatu, Hawke’s Bay, and Wairarapa at the beginning of the month, causing thousands of pounds of loss in electrical lines alone. . . , , , A resolution was carried as tolj ows: —That this conference urges on the Government the necessity for power to be given local authorities, including power boards, to give notice to the owner or occupier of land on which trees are growing and are a menace or likely to be a menace to lines and roads to remove them within a specified time, and failing their removal the local body may enter on the land and lemoi e them.” It was also decided, but not unanimously, that where trees are a menace or a danger to lines the owner or occupier should be given the option of having them trimyned or topped or cut down, the latter to bo done free of charge, but the cost of the former to be borne by the occupier and to become a charge on the land. It was also decided that where the occupier plants trees subsequent to the erection of lines he shall be compelled to cut them down at his own cost if they become a menace.