GREY POWER BOARD

Grey River Argus, 20 May 1943, Page 3

GREY POWER BOARD

Annual Meeting

MR. J. MULCARE ELECTED

CHAIRMAN.

Mr. J. Mulcare was elected chairman of the Grey Electric Power Board at the annual meeting last evening. There was one other nomination, that of Mr. W. H. Parfitt, and Mr. Mulcare was elected by live votes to four. . . , , Mr. Parfitt was nominated by Mr. J. Smeaton, who referred to his line record of service. He had been Mayor of Greymouth and had served on every local body. ‘ Mr. W. is. Pring seconded the nomination. Mr. Mulcare was nominated by Mr. P. Blanchfield jnr., with Mr. Kent as seconder. Mr. Parlitt congratulated Mr. Mulcare, who returned thanks to the members.

Extracts from the annual report ol the retiring Chairman are as follows: The Board has experienced a' record yfcar, the gross revenue from the sale of electricity having reached a new peak of £82,740. We have, despite shortage of labour and materials not raised the unit price of electricity one iota. Not only this, but the Board’s area' now extends as far south as Kumara Junction, while consumers are now connected as far away as beyond Reefton. With this area to be reticulated, the problem of providing extra post-war work to assist in absorbing the surplus labour which mav,| then be available will be no problem at all. The provision of materials, both reticulation and trading stocks, is likely to prove the bottle-neck in any extension scheme, and the provision' of electricity is the concern of the Government, who doubtless have that matter in hand. The matter of the bulk supply oi electricity is one that doubtless would have been considered at the Conference of Power-supply; Authorities had it been held in 1942,* as the shortage of power, particularly in the North Island,, is a matter that promises to assume alarming proportions. Restrictions on the supply and installation of domestic electric equipment have' been partly responsible for the droo noticed in an classes of domestic consumption. fine drafting, of family men into rne Armed Forces has been another contributing factor, and this, with lighting restrictions, also adversely affected the rev•enue from commercial consumption. The lighting restrictions have now been partially' removed, but the men are still away, so that no increase in sales of electricity under domestic and commercial.headings can be expected. This brings me to an important point. The Secretary mentioned in his report on the Annual Accounts the fact that the revenue from the sale of power was the only group that showed an increase, due, as the Engineer showed in his April meeting report, to the addition ol three new large consumers, two coal mines and a gold dredge. There is also mention m the Secretary’s report of the fact mat the Board is showing about £2B,ooo’s worth of “assets” which are not assets at all, being only- expenditure which the Board could not meet out of revenue at the time it was incurred, and which, as a matter of expediency only, was capitalised. This was quite good business at Ihe time and was sound accountancy, but such items are never intended lo be Itn in the accounts indefinitely, and 1 am strongly of the opinion that the Secretary’s’ recommendation to write the figure down, be given effect to. A further matter upon which members will remember I have often spoken, is the provision or an adequate reserve fund. This is directly related to the fact mentioned earlier in this report —that this Boaru derives a great part of its revenue from a source which cannot be considered stable, gold mining and dredging. It must be realised that a drop of say, £2 an fiujice, in the present high price of gold, would render gold dredging unprofitable, and would result in an immediate and considerable loss of revenue to this Board. For this reason I have always been of the opinion that we should put away, while times are good, money that we can spare, against the time when the sources of some of our revenue are closed to us. I therefore, ask the Board to sanction the investment of £3,000 in either short term Government War Loan stock or Fixed Deposit, as an addition to our general reserve.

The Board has been in operation for seventeen years now, and has a depreciation fund of £7.735 to cover fixed assets of over £200,000 or a percentage of a little more than 35 per cent. This also, 1 would commend to the Board’s notice, if not now, then in the near future. Since in the case of the Government Electricity schemes a fund oP 121 per cent.' of the fixed assets is considered reasonable for this purpose, we may fairly consider that the same rule should apply to our smaller scheme.

Referring to the recommendation in the report concerning investments, Air. Clayton said that the bulk of the revenue came from large supply, consumers. With a possibility of the failure of revenue from such sources as mining it would be advisable to keep on the safe side and have a reasonable reserve.

In moving the adoption of the report, Mr. J. Smeaton said that, he agreed with the Chairman on the question of reserve funds. He considered, however, that consideration should be given to the small consumers. He was optimistic for the future, and he thought that serious consideration should be given to the lowering of the charges for small consumers.

Mr. J. B. Kent opoosed immediate adoption of the clause in the report referring to writing down the £2B,ooo’s worth of assets, expressing that consideration of this matter should be left over till the next meeting.

The Secretary explained that when this sum was nut down as assets it was done in order to postpone certain oayments. It could not be debited to'the revenue account at the time. The report as it stood wa's adopted, Mr. Kent dissenting. REDUCTION OF CHARGES. Mr. Blanchlield raised the question of the .reduction of charges. He moved that all consumers paying bd a unit should be allowed a rebate of ten per cent, if accounts were paid bv the due date. The Board had made a’ profit of £9,000 last year and the estimated prolit for next year was £lO,OOO. The ordinary person was taxed to the limit, which was necessary in wartime, and had very little spending money left. He would have liked to move that a reduction of one penny, a 1 unit, be made, but he felt that this, amounting to onesixth, was too much at present. The Board had already invested £3OOO m the Liberty Loan, and at the same time was borrowing money at twice the interest! This year- it was proposed to invest another £3OOO. He cud not like to see other people’s money being used in this way till he saw them getting back more. Even if the Board lost its gold dredge revenue it would still be able to keep its head above water. Mr. Smeaton moved an amendment that the Secretary and Engineer be asked to bring down a report next month as to whether 5d a unit could not be adopted. Mr. Kent seconded the motion, which was supported bv Mr. Parfitt. In renly to ,a question the Secrehrv (Mr. W. S. McClymont) said that under the present system me Board’s section was not fully occupied, but it was renting space in other areas. He moved that the

Engineer prepare sketch plans of new buildings t 0 accommodate the staff. It would be a good idea to be prepared with the plans a considerable time ahead.

Mr. Clayton said that this was not the time to start building, but he considered that they should have the plans prepared. The motion was adopted. The whole Board was reappointed the Finance Committee. ORDINARY MEETING. Mr. W. Clayton presided at the ordinary monthly meeting of the Grey Electric Power Board, and the following were also present: Messrs J. Mulcare, P. Blanchfield jun., J. Smeaton, J. Unwin, W. H. Parfitt. J. B. Kent, W. E. Pring, W. Fisher, the secretary (Mr. W. S. McClymont) and the engineer (Mr. Sinclair Trotter).

The Electric Power Board and Supplv Authorities’ Association wrote stating that the Napier Borough Council had appealed against the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case against the Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board. The secretary explained that the case concerned a charge made to th e Power Board by the Borough Council for the use of its electoral roll. The effect of the case now was that no Borough could charge a Power Board with portion of the cost of preparing a roll used also in the election of Power Board members. Mr. E. Hitchcock manager of the M.E.D., wrote concerning the Soul/i island E.P.B. and. S.A. conference in Christchurch on May 24. Matters to be discussed, the secretary said, were reticulation of sparsely/ populated areas, rehabilitation, bulk supply, particularly in the North Island, and the supply authorities’ liability lor re-inspection of electrical equipment.

The chairman said the matters were important, although as far as supply was concerned the South Island did not suffer as much as the North Island. After it had been moved that the Board be represented, and that the selection of delegates be left till the next meeting. Mr. Blanchfield asked at how many conferences the Board had been represented in the last year, how much it cost, and whether the results had been satisfactory.

The secretary said that no delegates had gone from the Board in 1942 because there were no conferences. Mr. Kent had attended a meeting as a member of the Power Boards’ Association Executive at no cost to the Board. He and the engineer had gone to a conference of secretaries and engineers, but this had cost the Board only £5 16s sd. Mr. Smeaton said that money was never wasted, in sending delegates to conferences. Mr. Pring said that it had been decided last year not to have any joy-rides to conferences, where there was a lot of talk around the table that never got anywhere. Mr. Kent said that the Board had saved thousands of pounds through members attending conferences. They had profited by others’ mistakes. Mr. Blanclifield said |that 'the Board should receive written reports of the conference, and Mr. Pring agreed. ■ The chairman said that conferences were well worth while. They enabled the Board to steer clear of trouble. It was decided to give £5O tor each of the United Nations’ Fair Queens and £5O. to the Reefton Patriotic effort.