GREATER DEMANDS DUE TO LABOUR’S NEW PROSPERITY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23092, 3 November 1949, Page 6

GREATER DEMANDS DUE TO LABOUR’S NEW PROSPERITY

POWER SHORTAGES

Existing restrictions on the consumption of electric power, particularly in the North Island, were due not to a failure of the Labour Government to foresee the country’s expanding requirements of power, but to wartime conditions which forced a slowing-down in hydro-electric construction while creating an ever-increasing demand for power, stated Mr. R. A. Keeling, addressing a substantial audience in Tolaga Bay on Tuesday evening.

The Labour candidate for the Gisborne seat claimed that apart from the demand created bv war industries, utilisation of electrical power throughout the country had increased by leaps and bounds as a direct result of the Government’s poliev of industrial expansion and the higher standards of living in the community brought about by the Labour administration.

New Production Under Labour

Devoting most of his address to a discussion of hydro-electric development, Mr. Keeling stated that New Zealand was one of the most highly electrified countries in the world, having 93 per cent, of its dwellings connected to electric supply. Production of power had not been able to overtake the extraordinary expansion in demand as yet. and there would be temporary shortages of power until schemes now under construction were completed. It should not be forgotten, however, that since Labour took office in 1935 Piripaua, Kaitawa, Karapiro and Cobb River schemes had been brought into being.

Rapid Industrial Expansion

The inevitable trend towards modernisation and more efficient methods of obtaining and using power was in a large part due to Labour’s policy. Mr. Keeling said. In 14 years of unbroken prosperity electrical service and equipment had been brought within the reach of more people than ever before. Rapid industrial expansion throughout the Dominion had produced solid increases in the commercial demand for power, and the cost to consumers had fallen steadily until now New Zealand supplied the cheapest power of any country in the world except in Canada. The candidate expressed keen interest in the prospects of the extension of power to the East Coast area, and mentioned that surveyors were now pegging the line to the coastal district. It was the intention of the Government, he said, to assist with the installation of power on the Coast. At the conclusion of his address Mr. Keeling was assured by the meeting, at which Mr, P. T. Weeks presided, of the hearty confidence of Tolaga Bay supporters in a motion moved by Mr. R. Wilson and seconded by Mr. B. O'Connor.