ELECTRIC CHARGES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 August 1924, Page 9

ELECTRIC CHARGES.

(To the Editor.) Sir, I notice in your issue of Wednesday" what might be accepted as a periodic complaint about charges for electricity in id awe r a borough, but the occasion is unique in that there is atlast a reply from the company, notwithstanding that it is qualified by the statement that the company has no intention of entering a newspaper controversy. The latter occasions me no surprise, as questions might- be asked winch, whether evaded or answered would be equally inconvenient. How-' ev ei, the company being a purveyor of a public utility, it must be prepared tor public criticism, and the only avenue for the expression of such is, of '-•ourso, your journal. The manager s oiler to supply any information at the office is deceptive in its face value- the public are only concerned with the charges and the reason for them. There is no need for inquiry regarding the former, which aie already well-known, and any questions concerning the latter would, 1 venture to say, meet with a not over-polite rejoindei to “mind one’s own business.’ let it becomes our business when the charges are too high, or seemingly so. And we must also bear in mind that the manager is a servant of the company, while the consumers so far have been without an advocate. Mr Lamb has introduced the matter of “common practice,” and I would like, with your permission, to investigate where itleads, lmn to. In point of fact, the subject of utilisation of electrical energy has been so much “in the air” ot recent years that- the public are becoming more conversant with common piactice than formerly. Paragraph (i) ot the company's reply suggests a contradiction to not- only electrical but a.so commercial, practice. Capital charges are invariably distributed over the entire volume of business; the miming costs will be the same, or nearly so 1 beiieve, whether the output- oi tlie generators is one kilowatt or the company’s capacity of the Satuidav night load. True, differential chaiges are sometimes made on account of cost of reticulation; but in contra we have the Hawera Company impos.tlie lowest charge of their ‘schedule (incidentally a rather varied schedule, .comprising 2d, 3kl, 4d, 6d, Bd, and .Lt/d per unit) where the cost of reticulation is highest, .and their top charge where reticulation is most easily and cheaply accomplished. Paragraph'(3) is an unfair and incorrect statement. t ironi t J lO Jiosuital, therein*© such connections passed by the company'and paid lor by aiiangcmcni with the company at less than lighting rates. The consumers may not be entitled to such a concession irom the company’s point' ot \ tow but, may plead ''oolllllloll piactice. ’ Jt js usual to permit (1 nope the company will note the difference) electric irons to be attached to lighting circuits where heating circuits aic not already installed, and where the period of use would not justify such expenditure. I do not know o‘f any supply corporation (municipal or P].' lva^. e )) apart from Hawera,, which, as Mr Lamb informed me personally, ‘‘will not allow an electric iron to be attached to a heating circuit.” From paiagrapli (4) it is difficult- to comprehend why a shopkeeper should be mulcted to the extent of 2d nor unit of current consumed because lie chooses to walk to his shop to switch off lights. J aragiaph (o) that “it is common practice that an.y consuming device of 1 css than 600 watts should go on lighting rates,” can be definitely refuted” Father it is customary to" encourage the use of these as widely as possible so as to get the load factor as nearly as constant as the overhead charges are, no great degree of intelligence being required to understand that the cost per unit generated varies inversely to the load. Local preference seems to be to allow the water to flow over the spillway for 20 hours per day 7 in order to justify the charges over the remaining four hours. The information, supplied that there are some places in New Zealand where charges are higher is 110 more' consoling than the certain knowledge that there are many 7 mere areas where they 7 are lower. It would be equally pertinent to mention that Taihape sold power for 3d per unit and New Plymouth 2d, in the .'la* tor instance reducible even to Id beyond an assessed maximum demand. It will surely 7 not he contended that taxation accounts tor this vast difference, which is accomplished also in snite of the fact that irons, kettles, small radiators, etc., are treated as heating rather than lighting appliances. However, we are- hoping that relief will result from the conferences of the various local bodies on the question of electrical supply, and trust that Mr P.one, the representative from r. aw era borough Council, will “keep :eadily in view-” that no municipality in the Taranaki province is so bankrupt of enterprise as Hawera, which does not cun a single public, utility.—l am, etc., OPTIMIST.