State Control Of Electricity Opposed By Board Member

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23315, 26 July 1950, Page 8

State Control Of Electricity Opposed By Board Member

AUCKLAND, July 25

Electricity control in New Zealand should be divorced from the State Hydro-Electric Department and Government control generally, said Mr. L. T. Hayman, a member of the Waitemata Electric-Power Board, at a.meeting of the board yesterday. “There are many of us who think that electric power is 100 big a thing to be under political control,” he said. “It should not be subject to party policy or under the control of one Minister. “It seems to me that a commissionsimilar to the Victorian State Electricity Commission—should be set up to control the distribution and sale of electric power in New Zealand. There is an unlimited market here and the department at the moment is more than paying its way.” Mr. Hayman was discussing a report from the chairman of the Board. Mr. W. J. Scholium, on a combined meeting of the Auckland, Franklin and Waitemata clectric-power boards held last month. The meeting then carried a resolution recommending that facilities be granted to local supply authorities to develop economic power sites which the department was not suitably equipped to handle economically and expeditiously. The board yesterday decided to call a special meeting of representatives of the three electric-power boards to meet the members of Parliament of the areas controlled by the boards, to discuss power problems.