POWER PROBLEMS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 58, Issue 4174, 17 August 1949, Page 12

POWER PROBLEMS

AUSTRALIA IN A FIX TIRED OF WAITING — PEOPLE EXASPERATED Interesting sidelights on the problems and troubles of elec* tricity supplying authorities in New South Wales were given by Mr R. Sprague to members of the Thames Valley Electric-Power Board at .its July meeting. In 1946 the Government announced its plan for the service of 24,000 farms and 10,000 other consumers and hopes were high. Poles went up and there were no bolts for the cross-arms. The main lines went up and there were vital parts lacking for the final links with the farms or there were no transformers to reduce the power to useable voltage.

• So it has gone on, stated Mr Sprague. Of the 80 councils participating in the Government scheme many' were far behind schedule and watching rising costs with an anxious eye. He was advised by the principal engineer of the Rural Electricity Authority that it took four years to obtain a transformer after ordering' it.

One instance which was typical was given of the experience of the North Clarence River Council which planned to connect 5000 consumers in fpom five to ten years. In two years it had connected 300 applicants which was one quarter of what it had expected to do in that time. Shortage of insulators, nuts, bolts and other ironwork was blamed.

Another local body, the Southern Riverina County Council, was two years behind its schedule and had been waiting four ahd a half years for the delivery of transformers. Of the waiting thousands in that particular area only 225 applicants had so far been supplied with current. Thousands of people were nagging their shire councils for electricity. and slowly they were getting it but the slowness was most exasperating to the manywhose hopes rose high when the Government plan was announced in 1946. Officers of local bodies were trying to placate people who were tired of waiting for the promised electricity, stated Mr Sprague.