ELECTRIC LIGHT RATES

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 December 1925, Page 3

ELECTRIC LIGHT RATES

A FARMER’S PROTEST. A protest against what was alleged to be excessive cost of canying electric light into an outlying district was made in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court, when the Wairewa County Council sued Gordon Edward Murray, sheep farmer, of Long Bay, for £3 13s 9d, a uniform rate due to the Banks Peninsula Power Board. Mr. Harper appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. McCarthy for the defendant. Mr. H. P. Lawry, S.M., weis on the Bench. Mr. Harper addressed the court on the- questions of the plaintiffs’ right to the rate. Mr. M’Carthy, for the defence, said that it had been stated that electric power was carried irrespective of expense into the remote districts of the Dominion. The defendant occupied a piece of land in an out-of-the way district and it would cost him £BO or £9O a year as interest on the cost of having the power brought to his property. In addition to this there would be the rate and the cost of the light itself. He placed the question in that light in order to show the necessity of the clauses in the' Statute feeing interpreted in the light of the circumstances surrounding those people in outlying districts. Mr. Harper: That question was not raised until the rates were about to be collected from Murray. The Magistrate: It seems to me that the defendant is in the same position as settlers when a new county is formed. Some have to pay rates and get no benefits from roads and other tilings. Mr. M’Carthy: If that is your Worship’s view I shall close my case. Judgment was given for the plaintiff for the amount claimed with costs £4 6s. The defendant was given leave to appeal.