South Island Power Gap

Grey River Argus, 20 October 1948, Page 8

South Island Power Gap

OAMARU, Oct. 19. Consequent upon an anticipated serious shortage of electric power the conference at Oamaru of the South Island Chambers of Commerce to-day adopted a Canterbury remit calling upon the Minister of Public Works (Mr Semple) “in view of the apparent gap in. the electricity supply from 1953 until the completion of the Coal Cheek scheme, to state his plans for bridging that gap.” Moving the adoption of the remit Mr E. Tl Beaven (Christchurch) said that although this winter the weather had been favourable, with the result that the country had fared better in regard to the supply of electricity, the prospects fpr the future gave cause for alarm. The position over the next five years, he said, would be ‘tight,” even with the most favourable weather, but thereafter the supply would be quite inadequate to meet requirements. Seconding the motion, Mr P. W. Young (South Canterbury) advocated the installation of thermo-elec-tnc units and the recruiting of all available labour for hydro schemes.