GREY POWER BOARD

Grey River Argus, 22 June 1939, Page 8

GREY POWER BOARD

MONTHLY MEETING HELD. 'The meeting of the Grey Electric Power Board was held last evening, when there were present: Messrs J. B. Kent (chairman), W. Fisher W. H. Parfitt, W. Clayton, A. H. McKane. J. Unwin, J. Smeaton, A. M. Carroll, i and J. Mulcare. I The Westland Provincial Council of I the N.Z. Centennial wrote re the scholarship fund, and asked the Board, if convenient, to pay in one lump sum of £9O the balance promised by it, in- ■ stead of spreading it over 8 years as 1 al first arranged, to enable the Council to collect the Government subsidy. ‘ It. was decided, on the motion of Messrs Smeaton and Clayton, to accede to the request. | The Minister of Public Works wrote' ' regarding the desirability of keeping power lines underground near aerodromes for safety, and invited the cooperation of boards and other supply authorities in the matter. It was decided to refer the matter to the Engineer and assure the Minister of the Board’s willingness to coioperate. , | The secretary, Electric Power' Boards and Supply Authorities AssoI Nation,, advised that Power Boards i may now raise loans at 4t per cent., and promised to keep boards in close I touch with probable sources of loans. ' The State Advances Corporation advised that the Board’s loan of £BOOO, less expenses, had been remitted to the Bank of New Zealand, Greymouth. THE ESTIMATES. | Accounts totalling £4046 3s Bd, made i up of paid accounts £1470 7s 8d and : unpaid accounts £2575 16s, were passieu for payment. The annual accounts I and balance sheet, 1938-39, and the I secretary’s report thereon were adopted. The estimates for the financial year 1939-40 and a report on them were tabled and adopted. The estimates were as follows:—

Income: Public lighting £1550; domestic services £24,386; commercial services £11,160; power £35,414; discounts lost £600; sundries £5;. trading £500; total £73,615. Expenditure: Cost of bulk power £32,085; distribution maintenance £-5970; management and general! £7950; total £46,005. Capital charges,! interest £B9OO, repayment of loans and sinking funds £9050, depreciation £1000; total £64,955. Surplus on year’s working £8660. Mr Smeaton congratulated the secretary and Engineer on the excellent manner in which they had presented the annual accounts and'estimates. A great deal of work was entailed, .but thoroughness was most evident. POWER SHORTAGE QUESTION. The secretary, Electric Power Boards and Supply Authorities Association, wrote regarding deputation, lo Public Works Department over: prospective power supply shortage in the South Island. .

Mr Smeaton, as a delegate from the i Board to the Minister of Public Works at Wellington,'-reported on the deputation which interviewed him on .Tune 14. All of the speakers, he said, stressed the necessity of increased ! power supplies, the general opinion j being advanced, that. the margin bel tween production and demand was not (as great as it should' be. The depth 1 of the dam at Waitaki was not considered to be a matter of anxiety, but the danger with regard to the Coleridge tunnel had been a source of worry to the Minister. It was pointed out 1 that secondary industries, were cropping up everywhere, whilst there was now a big-demand from gold dredges ’on the West Coast, which was everincreasing. The Minister said he was i not satisfied with the position, and in the past few weeks had discussed , with his engineers, Messrs Woods and Kissel, the necessity of having more power available. The Minister was ’ not so concerned about the South Island as he was about the North. The deputation members stressed the necessity of the establishment of steam plants, ‘ and the Minister coincided with the view, expressing the fact of | the necessity of one at Huntly and one in the South Island. Naturally enough, one could expect the South Island steam plant to be situated on the West Coast on account of the handy coal supplies. The Minister agreed that it was a bad policy of having all their eggs in one basket--that was, hydro-genation—as the Dominion was subject to “shivers,” and on this account alone it was advisable to have steam plants. It was also pointed out by the Minister that wonderful strides had been made in the generation of electricity from steam | plants. The Minister said he would thoroughly investigate the production of electricity by steam plants. He pointed out that to put this into effect, it would be necessary to get the approval of Cabinet, and then approval from the Minister of Finance to procure the necessary machinery 7 from the Old Country. The deputation was well treated, and came away satisfied that the Minister would give serious consideration to the question, and that there would be no shortage if he could possibly do anything to improve the position. On the motion of the chairman and Mr Clayton, Mr Smeaton was thanked for his valuable report, Mr Clayton remarking that it was gratifying to think that there was no chance ot losing their power supplies. Mr H. Dodson wrote resigning his position as meter reader. The resignation was accepted with regret on the motion of Mr Parfitt, seconded by Mr Kent.

APPOINTMENT OF METER READER. Seventy-seven applications for the position of meter-reader were tabled. I On the motion of Mr Mulcare, seconded by Mr Smeaton, a ballot was taken to reduce these to eight. A furI ther ballot reduced them to four I Messrs David F. Bell, C. Roberts, W. I Caldwell, and E. Langridge. A further ballot reduced the number of candidates to two —Messrs Bell and Roberts. Mr David F. Bell was appointed to fill the vacant meter reader’s position. It was decided to give £lOO towards the memorial which had been decided on for the Grey district, i.e., Plunket and Rest Rooms, on the motion of Mr McKane, seconded' by Mr Carroll. Mr Mulcare asked that his vote be recorded against the motion. It was further decided in connection with the lighting for the Centennial that no definite .decision be made regarding the expense to vyhich the | Board should go in the direction .of ' decorating the town until the Engineer had had an opportunity of finding | out exactly what was required. The;

motion was moved by Mr McKane, and seconded by Mr Parfitt. The Engineer, Mr S. Trotter, reported for the period May 17 to June 20, .1939, as follows:—The present quarter ends on June 30, and as any intermediate figures are not of much value, the quarterly results will be given for next Board meeting as to power supplied. The outside staff nave been engaged on general maintenance and connecting new consumers. A transformer sub-station has been erected for a new sawmill on the Taylorville-Blackball road. Extensions to low tension lines are in progress on Joyce Estate to serve numerous new nouses being erected there. The annual testing of all earths on the Board’s system has been completed for this year and returns rorvvarded to the Public Works Department. Since, last monthly meeting 21 new applications for supply have been received, making the total to date 4,570. 25 new consumers have oeen connected, this bringing the total number of consumers up to 4,596. The report stated that additions to the load during the past month were: Lighting 14.935 k.w.; heat and ironing 86.710 k.w.; water heating 5 k.w.; power 50.75 k.w.; cooking 43 k.w.; and the total load added having been 200 k.w., making the grand total 2074 k.w. Extensions and alterations to 98 existing installations have been carried out. Nine electric ranges, 16 washing machines and 40 radio sets have been connected.