NEW ELECTRIC POWER LINES

Matamata Record, Volume XVI, Issue 1447, 3 August 1933, Page 6

NEW ELECTRIC POWER LINES

LICHFIELD AND TOKOKOA.

Board in Touch With Settlers.

Another Canvass May be Made.

Efforts by the Thames Valley Power Board to extend electric power lines into the rather sparselysettled districts south of Putaruru are being renewed with good prospects of something being done. The board is now waiting for a meeting of settlers at Lichfield to show if there is sufficient load of consumers to make an extension of 7 h miles of line to Lichfield township a payable proposition. A further request for the extension of the power line to Tokoroa has been sympathetically received by the board. Subsidy Now Available.

Recently the chairman (Mr. J. Price) and officers of the board conferred with Mr. J. S. Jessup (deputy-chairman of the Unemployment Board) and made a request that the Unemployment Board should subsidise the erection of lines in districts such as Lichfield and Tokoroa, where the revenue offering is not sufficient to warrant the construction. As a result, the Unemployment Board has offered to subsidise the wages of married unemployed men to the extent of 37s 6d a week.

The chairman said the subsidy was about 50 per cent of wage costs, but only about 12 h per cent, of total capital costs. However, any reduction of capital costs would have the effect of making the line more of a payable proposition. It now remained to be seen if a new canvass of these districts taken with the support of the settlers would show that there were sufficient intending consumers to make the proposed lines payable. PROSPECTS AT LICHFIELD. The chief engineer reported that a road survey has been made of the Lichfield district, the route extending from the end of the present line on the Taupo road out to Lichfield village, back down the road past the school, and up a branch road running westward, a length of approximately miles. On the total length there are 25 sheds and 35 houses. With an average revenue of £l4 per shed and £4 per house the total revenue would be £490, but the revenue required is £583 15s. Taking a shorter distance, round as far as the school houses, the prospective load is 15 sheds and 23 houses. On the same basis as in the previous paragaph the revenue would be £302 per annum, while the revenue required is £3lB. During a recent visit to the district by the chairman and engineer, it was suggested that a meeting would probably be the best means of submitting all information and obtaining the feeling of the residents.

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TOKOROA DISTRICT REQUEST.

The Tokoroa Progress League wrote inquiring if there was any prospect of the board extending, its lines into the Tokoroa district. There was considerably more settlement in the district now than when a canvass was made three years ago, and as charges for power -were now lower, the league thought it would be in the board’s interest to reopen the matter.

In reply the chairman said that he had inspected the Tokoroa district a few months ago, and he recognised that it could not be very long before the board would have to extend its lines to the Tokoroa district. The board trusted it could count on the active assistance of the league.