POWER BOARD

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 4593, 20 May 1922, Page 1

POWER BOARD

PROGRESS REPORTED. NO START THIS WINTER. Tlie M.iuuwatu-Oroua Electric Power Hoard’s resident engineer, Mr \V. A. Waters, expects to be in a position to furnish the board at its next meeting with an estimate of the approximate amount of money required for its scheme of reticulation. A tremendous amount of detail work is at present going on at the board’s offices at Palmerston North. A plan is Icing prepared, on which every road in the district is marked and numbered, together with its appro-Vina to length. The map already contains several hundreds of red dots, every one of which represents a homestead —each a potential consumer of electricity. These details are absolutely necessary, seeing that before ar.y particular section of the district is reticulated, its revenue-prod icing prospects will be considered by the board. THE FIRST STEP. As was briefly indicated by Mr Waters at the last meeting of the board, the first section whicli it will be advisable to tako in band lies between Palmerston North and Feild ing—this with a view to establishing a temporary source for the supply of power in case electricity is not immediately available. By this means the board will, if deemed necessary, be able to take power from the Palmerston North and Feilding power houses. The work of the general reticulation of tlie district would then be undertaken, and, as the engineer pointed out, it would be advisable to give priority-to those districts which it was obvious a good load is waiting. This whole question lias, of course, yet to be decided by the board, along with the question of whether advances will bo made to consumers, requiring the same, to cover the cost of connecting up their promises with the board’s transmission lines. DATE OF COMMENCEMENT. In the ordinary course of events some considerable time must elapse beforo a start is made by the board with its construction work. In this connection it has to bo borne in mind that, while the work will ultimately provide employment for a considerable number of men, the loan poll has yet to be taken and the money raised. Even after these stages are past not a post hole can be dug until a license is obtained from the Government to proceed with tlie work. Beforo this license is granted—not that any hitch whatever is anticipated on this score—the plans for the reticulation must, bo approved by the Public Works Department, the Post and Telegraph Department, and the Railway Department. After the license is issued the material will have to bo assembled, and this will take time.

In the absence, therefore, of any official statement on the point, there are good grounds for assuming that the board will not be able to make a proper start with the construction work before October or November. There is therefore no possibility of the board being able to relieve the present unemployment situation. Meanwhile, tho board’s engineer and stalf are pushing on with tho preliminary work with all possible speed, and next month something definite will be known as to tho probable cost of the scheme. In this connection, it is interesting to note that tho Thames Valley Board’s scheme, which is now ail accomplished success, serves, a district with a population approximately the same as the Manawatu-Oroua district, 32,000, and the ratepayers within this area have authorised the board to borrow £550,000 for the scheme.—Standard.