“K.V.A.” ON POWER BOARD’S CRITICS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 30 August 1929, Page 4

“K.V.A.” ON POWER BOARD’S CRITICS.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —No attention having been given to “Spotlight’s” previous contributions 011 the subject he has decides! to give it another trial, and in the process gets 'badly out oi locus. lix opening lie writes that the ratepayers will be asked to vote next week “not on what they know and can see for themselves, but on what they are told by one side or the other.” That is not a true statement; they will be asked to vote on the information contained in their monthly accounts primarily, and the board members and others, with perhaps a keener perception of the position, have only brought into prominence points which might have been overlooked. Your former correspondent Mr. Gane and myself, easily within the memory of the present generation, fully discussed charges for current in this and other districts; the ligures were incontrovertible, and could be verified from Government sources, from public body accounts, and from consumers in other areas, and I believe that the public mind is already fixed on that point. The ratepayers are not really apathetic, although they may be more than a trifle bored by the oftreiterated statement that “private companies can be more economically run than power boards,” a species of argument to which grandmother would exclaim “Fiddlesticks!”—and grandmother would be right, for (I will have Mr. Taylor’s support as a lawyer in this) we do not approach within streets of the ancients in the matter of wisdom. We are, seemingly and seriously, asked to believe that the directors of the Hawera Electric Com-

pany can earn taice one muli-ampere of electricity and balance it on the end of a broomstick or pick it up with a pair of lire tongs and put it in a test tube, whereas the members of the Tower Board could not pick between a slip-ring of a generator and a Diesel ny-wheel, and are incapable of learning. Without some ocular demonstration we cannot realise that there is a staff of super-men running the Union Street concern. “Spotlight” issues a. challenge to Mr. Murdoch to show that stepping-up the voltage will not east more than £6C<JU. There was a southerly gale blowing a tew days ago, which mayaccount for that challenge—it savours of wind. Suppose Mr. Murdoch were to tell him that a rotor could be wound for one-third the cost of a stator, that ,

cue rnsuiators woiua De nana-maue ana hem-stitched, that he was calculating on the autumn end-of-season sales t>o pick up some cheap transformers, and that these latter would be used outside the periods of peak-load**to transform debits into credits, would “Spotlight” not then have to call in one of the Ratepayers’ Association experts? I at any rate think so. Why', New Plymouth carried through the same procedure without anybody noticing it; Stratford not only dealt with its hightension lines, but also its low-tension, and scrapped its entire 110-volt plant—

yet Dot'll are flourishing and making a better showing from the consumers’ point of view than Hawera. Wellington and others iollowed suit to pick U P "tlie Mangahuo sclieme, to inodernise and standardise. And they are all run by public bodies. The correspondent under surveymakes the point that the, board’s expenses will be added to the purchase money. That is not a reason why the loan should be turued down. The average intelligence understands that, as the bill must be paid, it will lie easier for the consumers (who are the more numerous) to pay indirectly than for the ratepayers to meet it directly. Coming to the question oi whether, in the event of the board taking over, there will he a rate struck, it is worth

noting mat wnne its opponents liave been castigating the board for stating there will be no rate, they themselves have never actually .said there will lie. Could they find a tittle of evidence to support their insination it is quite certain Mr. Taylor would put on a longnight dance. On each, occasion that I have written I have put forward a conundrum for solution by my opponents, so far without a single reply coming to hand. This time' I wish to ask: .What is a domestic iron? If it is in the power category it should consume power at 3id per unit; if it is heat the “fuel”, should be lid per unit. The <ompany classifies it as light and charges 8d per unit. Just imagine a flat-iron dependant from the centre of the sittingioonx ceiling draped in a silk shade: it would seem about as sensible as the housewife cutting down the water tank to make a d’oyley. Its big brother, the commercial iron used in the clothing trade, apparently radiates a lew candle-power less, as it comes in on

xq aim o« per unit —according to me “squeal” made by its owner. A wonderfully c#*aplex affair is Hawera’s electric supply. In passing, I might mention that I have seen the Canadian system of electrification to which you referred in your leading article, and had fortune smiled more broadly than she has done I would have been prepared to organise a. picnic for the Ratepayers’ Association to have a similar pleasure. The Canadian does not worry himself thill over what he is putting into it; he ’concerns himself with what he is likely to get out of it, and in matters electrical he does not hai'bour any doubt. Having l-egard to the exigencies of your space, sir, I will close with a comment to “Disgusted Ratepayer.” His purpose is too obviously insincere to delude anyone. That lie can read the minds of all of the ratepayers, yet cannot understand the printed words of Mr. Murdoch that a person making a contract must honour that contract—

which is both law and justice—is altogether too “thin.” Were it otherwise, even a Schopenhauer would expei-ience a difficulty in descending to the level of his understanding, and unless he lias a good knowledge of Rugby bis schooldays will have been wasted. Thanking sou, sir, —I am, etc., K.V.A.