HYDROELECTRIC POWER

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 8 March 1921, Page 4

HYDROELECTRIC POWER

% VISIT OF MR. BIRKS. -,

A meeting of delegates from local | bodies was lield in the Borough Coun-~j cil Chambers last evening for the pur-' pose of discussing with Mr. Birks, the ' .Government electrical engineer, the 1 question of hydro-electric supply for i Hawera and district. Those present were: Messrs E. Dixon (Mayor), Gorm_ ley, Spragg, Hayton, Osborne, Mor- j rissey, Reid, Cameron, Lewis, and Joll (borough councillors), C. 'Haw-ken and | R. J. Linn (Hawera County Council), i. J. Sturrock (borough engineer). Evans | (engineer to the Hawera Electric Light ' Company), and Elliott (town clerk). The Mayor read the first communi-; cation from the Government on the j question of electrical supply. The let- j ter stated that the first thing that I would be necessary would be the formation of a Power Board. The reticulation of the borough would be either j in the hands of the Borough Council or i the Power Board. The Government ; would not be prepared to take over any j portion of the existing plant, but it \ I would be necessary for the controlling j J body to have a stand-by plant, and it ' might be better to take oVer the ex- , isting plant than to provide a new j one. I The Mayor, in welcoming Mr. Birks, said the first communication1 with the Government about hydro-electricity was aw ( ay back in July, but they recognised j that Mr. Birks had come as soon as possible. Mr. Birks would remember j the Council's last letter, in which it 1 j was pointed out that the Hawera •County Electric Light Company was not j j meeting the demand, and the question j arose of buying out the company," but before going into this they thought it would be' better to learn if there was anything that the Government intended to do. They were not sure that the Electric Light Company would be prepared to sell, but if it could not meet ! the demand the Council would have to consider other means for meeting it. j He believed that the. company was doing its best. The question arose: Was . it best, in the event of anything being done, to form a power board ? .. Mr. Birks said a big question vras involved. Without going into the in- ! terests of the company or local authorities, he would take it that the question was one of electric supply and the interests of consumers. They had to seek a forecast of future developments and J see that an organisation was set up ■ suitable for carrying on those developi ments and giving the public the advan- • tages they were .clamouring - for. He ! would like to say that the advantages' ; of hydro-electricity were not conceivable as long as they had to economise. ' They could not realise the advantages till they had the electric power men \. going round and saying to the people, I "Take all you can. 5' When they had , ; this it meant revolutionising the home . and industry. He had been consideri ing that afternoon the question of increased power for Hawera. He had to j speak, to some extent, in view of de- • velopments, and he was afraid he jould , not offer anything in such_time as r would enable the people of Hawera to , say: "We will wait for it." The whole scheme was in black and white, the poles had been ordered, and he could show" them on a map the site of the j power station, but the scheme would • take some years to complete. The - question was whether they should in - the meantime' make provision for a ) reasonably abundant supply for the dis_ - trict. Mr. Birks referred to the change } that had been brought about by the , passing- of the Electric Power Boards i Bill in 1918. That Bill enabled them t> to set up a special local authority with ' fairly wide jurisdiction and adminis--3 trative powers.. It ,was drafted for. '' Southland —a fairly large district—but ' I applied to all districts. Electric Power } Boards had rating powers. Inner and outer districts were provided for. The * first had rating' powers, and from it 5 the members of the board were elected. * The second or outer district had no I rating powers and no representation on the board. It was merely tacked on ' so that later it could, if it wished,

come in. Means for including it were provided, and an outer area could be brought in by petition from not less than one-fourth of the ratepayers of that district. So as to give the necessary financial strength, power districts had to be fairly large, and some applications to form power boards had to be refused. Mr. Birks .read the provisions of the Act governing the size of districts, and said it was necessary to have a population of from 4000 to 5000 persons "and a revenue of from £12,000 to ,£15,000 a year. This was on the basis of one horse-power to five people, which was a fairly generous allowance, and nearly v double the power Christchurch had. The Government was very strong on taking in the back country. They did not look to the farmer for a profit. They wanted schemes to pay, but tli« did not want to go, in for building up profits. It was not necessary that every farmer in a district should be supplied, but every farmer should be considered. If they did not get revenue from the electric supply to farmers they got it from the- farmers in another way—by his produce. All he wanted to do was to impress on them that the town and country must go together. In reply to the Mayor, Air. Birks said the Act provided for differential charges in so far that a farmer might be charged under the ■ Act a certain amount for a connection when wires' had to be laid to the farm. The Crown' ! law officers had decided that differential 1 rates were not illegal. Coming to the local supply, Mr. Birks said they had 400 horse-power, which on' a 1 to 5 basis would supply 2000 inhabitants. In the Hawera district as defined by - the Act they had 14,500 inhabitants and a, horse-power of 3000 was needed, so evidently the matter required to be gone into. The first difficulty was the outlining of the district. The' Dominion had been divided into 56 districts, with 36 in the North Island. The Taranaki district he was least acquainted with. He would like to see the whole of Taranaki come in. The Mayor: New Plymouth says that they have enough for the province. Mr. Birks said he was not prepared to say that this was sd. The power required for the province was 11,700 horse-power if double the Christchurch supply per head was to be given. The Mayor mentioned that at present many farmers desired to have electric power, but the Electric Light Company could not supply it. Mr. Birks gave it as his opinion that it was vital to Hawera that it should' be connected up with /the Government scheme. He thought an electric power board should be formed. Mr Lewis wanted to know how much could be written off ?the Hawera Electric Light Company's property if j the Borough took it over. I Mr Birks: "That depends on how . smart your negotiations are." He did ' not consider any power in New Zea- \ land v would ever be shut off. Some ironsand faddist misrht suddenly want power and they would have to scratch up every ounce they could get. The Mayor: "It seems to me that I will be a v very old man before we get the Government scheme." He supposed they would have to do the • next best thing. Suppose ;>. power board was formed and they took over the County Electric Light Company's

plant, would they be assuming :afi'oa»* cial risk? Would the plant lose itsvalue, when the Government schema came along? Mr. Birks pointed out - that standby plants were necessary and had. three important functions, including;, the regulation of the supply and. the? carrying of the peak load. He suggested that in order to make headway Hawera should follow the examples; oiir Invercargill and Wanganui and adopts a war cry. „ The Mayor remarked that tiieco- did!.. not seem to be any source o£ supply here which could be adopted, as at, war cry. Replying to a question, M'n Birksisaid he intended visiting Bellas, Falls,, but this source seemed to he. too far:1 away for Hawera. In emphasising the' value of electric power in. t%e; country ■Mr Birks said that every horse power-' i was equal to. 18 tons of coal!,, or be— ■ | tween £30 and £40 a year:. The sayI ing in kerosene wbuldi bei nearlydouble and in pefrol nearly treble. The-/ cost of the Lake Coleridge, schemewas £47 per korse power; and this;. ; scheme was paying 7 per cent. net. It> . would pay them to scrape- hard to get. i & supply because of what. it. meant im>. j coal saving and in doing away with j risk. • . Replying to .'Mr Lewis-; Mr Birk*-. said that a commission*- of engineers* had been appointed to investigate the . reports on the Awapimi scheme. Mr Joll wanted to know.-, what- thepurpose of the meeting was. Mr Birks explained that he was* there in the first place to goi into the question of forming a power board andy . fixing boundaries. He was also in the? i district to go into1 the question) of any1" supplies available. Mr Joll pressed for something definite. They should get down to business. % : The Mayor said they now Knew if". they purchased the H-aw-era* Company's plant that it would not have to be* scrapped later. . , In regard to the lights; Held' by the*! Hawera Company the Mayor said they had about seven years to run. Mr Evans remarked; tfiafc the p/>si-' tion was obscure and. the rights might exist for all time. He pointed out/ that the tendency to adversely criticise the Hawera Company, was not. justified. The company, if it could geto water in 'abundance, was prepared.-. to reduce the price and increase ' the • supply. " Mr Birks said that whatever rightßthe company might have, "though'these* rights could not be sett aside,' by the*, new Act, they could be exercised, if r not by the power board, by the com--pany under the)* powar board. . This concluded - the conference, and£ , Mr yßirks was thanked by the Mayorfor his attendance^