BOROUGH GASWORKS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 July 1945, Page 6

BOROUGH GASWORKS

NEARLY AT CAPACITY The Borough Engineer (Mr. A. J. Fairmaid) in reply to a statement made at a meeting of the Greymouth (Borough Council, last evening by Cr. F. F, Boustridge that .he had had one or two complaints that the gas in the recent cold Weather had not been of the same heating capacity as usual and that the' consumers were not getting the quantity required, said that the quality was in the gas all the time, but the pressure had to be regulated, when, there was such a demand as there was during the unusually cold weather, to enable the maximum pressure to be made available when it was most required, for cooking purposes, from abbut 11 a.m. to i after noon. I Cr. Boustridge asked if there was I a low pressure of gas at other times? The Engineer said that the pressure was put up to five inches at 10 a.m., but if they were to give that pressure from early in the morning they would not be able to cope with the demand in the peak hours. . Further to Cr. Boustridge the Engineer said the trouble was storage and could not be obviated by another furnace. To the Mayor the Engineer said that another gasholder would cost between £lO,OOO and £20,000. The plant was working nearly up to capacity now. . ' The Mayor said that in the light of a recent statement by the Minister of Mines that there were only 20 years supplies of bituminous coal proved in the country the Council would have to “go canny” about extension of the storage facilities. The Engineer said that when the electric power became available in 1926 gas was used for. the pumping station and street lighting and a big proportion of the load was spread over the 24 hours. Now it was practically all a daylight demand. The Gas Manager reported that the sale of gas for May last was 3,853,300 cubic feet, as compared with 3,755,400 cubic feet in May last year an increase of 98,300 cubic feet. The cash receipts for June amounted to £l,351/0/4 (£1,485/18/4). . The cash receipts lor the financial year to June were £4,188/17/11 (£3,841/ 14/4). June showed the highest make yet attained, 5,153,000 cubic feet being the output for the' month, the highest for any one day being 191,000 cubic feet on June 14. On May 30 the make for the day was 205,000 cubic feet. The report was adopted.

ANNUAL REPORT The following annual report by the Gas Manager was approved::—Notwithstanding the steady increases in sales, despite competition from electricity, -expenditure has increased _at a greater rate and the margin which has hitherto obtained promises to disappear. One recent factor has been the increased cost of coal through practically none but unscreened coal being available at the price which places total costs for 1944-45 at £475 more than would have been the cost had slack coal been available. During the year now entered upon the. increase in wages cost on account of the latest increase will amount to nearly £550. Without any increase in sales those two items would absorb the whole of the margin which has obtained over the past 10 years. Accompanying this report are graphs which show the relationship between various factors entering into the business. So far as has been possible from data available with reasonable facility, the graphs go back to the year ended March 31, 1901, the end of the first financial year after the Borough acquired the concern from the Gas Company. ' The Mayor commented that the report indicated how critical the position was ’becoming with some of the Borough enterprises. As members knew'the abattoir was a losing proposition.