WAIRERE LOAN POLL

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4954, 11 February 1937, Page 5

WAIRERE LOAN POLL

£3OOO FOR POWER HOUSE. PROVISION OF STANDBY PLANT. A decision to hold a loan poll for £3OOO for improvements at the power house was made at the Wairere Power Board meeting yesterday. This is part of the £20,000 loan recently sanctioned by the Loans Board. Recent legislation enabled the £17,000 which is to be spent on reticulation to be raised by special order, but as no provision was included for loans foxwork at power stations to be raised by this method, the balance will have to be raised by loan poll. The works on which the £3OOO will be expended are: Deepening of intake, erection of flashboards, settling tank and connections for thrust balancer, impi-ovements to turbine, provision of small standby plant, extension of power house building, and provision of new switch gear and a lai-ge transformer.

The chairman, Mr. R. Boddy, said at yesterday’s meeting he thought the Board should consider the raising of this money. The Board had been holding off to see if anything would come of the negotiations over the Ohura area, in which case Wairere might be safeguarded, but it was now evident that it would be a considerable time befoi-e anything eventuated. The present position was causing the engineer, Mi-. Green, some anxiety. The secretax-y said that if finality wei-e reached over the reticulation of Ohura, there should be no difficulty in having the money not then required diverted.

Mr. Crocombe said the Board was in the same position of “that of a motorist without a spare wheel.” As at a cost of £3 a week consumers could be safeguarded, the Board should see that they were. The chairman and engineer explained that for the standby plant it was proposed to take an elbow off the present pipeline and, if possible, to use the spare stator in the standby machine. It would not increase the capacity of the plant in any way, but would provide power for essential services if a shutdown was necessary for any cause. The engineer said that the only shutdowns that were likely after its installation were those necessary for cleaning dirty screens. The secretary was instructed to proceed with the raising of the power house loan of £3OOO, and was appointed returning officer for the loan poll.