HYDRO POSITION IMPROVES IN CANTERBURY

Grey River Argus, 20 June 1947, Page 3

HYDRO POSITION IMPROVES IN CANTERBURY

CHRISTCHURCH, June 19.

Warm, overnight rain in the Lake Coleridge area raised the level of the iake yesterday to 1662.72 feet, an improvement of nearly three inches on Tuesday’s level. Another 0 61 inches of rain" fell, at Lake Coleridge up to 9 a.m. yesterday.' Tuesday night’s rain helped to .sustain the improvement of the Waitaki’s flow, which, at 4400 cusecs ,is better now than for some weeks.

Losses in production as a result of the compulsory power cuts last week are estimated to have cost industry in Chritchurch between £50,000 and £BO,OOO. The loss in wages last week is placed at about £12,000. The secretary of the Manufacturers’ Association (Mr R. T. Alston) said yesterday that the average wage bill of one company before the

power cuts was £712 a week. In the first week of the cuts it dropped to £563, or a reduction of twenty-one per cent, on every employee's wages. Employees of another company which had been working overtime since 1939 had lost as much as £5 last week. The production of drainpipes by a company which was in a domestic area had dropped by 2000 a week.

Last week, because of power guts, which resulted in a loss of one hour’s production a day and three hours’ overtime, one clothing factory had a production loss of 240 women’s.garments. The number of units of power saved by the cuts is fifty-nine a week, and the total value is Gs 6d. The loss in wages at the factory, because of the elimination of overtime and the loss of bonuses, was £32 a week. To produce each garment the factory uses 0.23 of a unit of power.