ELECTRICAL RETICULATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 194, 15 July 1930, Page 2

ELECTRICAL RETICULATION.

COMPARISON OF TREATMENT. A comparison between the treatment by the New Zealand and Canadian Governments of rural authorities, in regard to rural reticulation schemes, was made by Mr H. F. Toogood in the course of his presidential address yesterday to the Electrical Supply Authority Engineers’ Association in Wellington. ‘Tn New Zealand,” he said, the small rural authorities pay the highest prices for buik supplies, and no effort is made by giving them cheaper current or monetary aid to assist them to serve the sparsely-populated districts. The Ontario Government subsidises rural reticulation schemes to the extent of 50 per cent of the capital cost of lines in the same manner as the New Zealand. Government subsidises the cost of road construction in the backblocks. I am not at this juncture advocating' that the Government of New Zealand should subsidise the cost of rural reticulation, but I put forward the fact that the Ontario Government does so because I want to draw a sharp comparison between New Zealand treatment of country areas and the Canadian treatment of the same class of consumers. I can also add that the Canadian authorities hope to go still further in assisting rural reticulation, "as the following extract from the Australian Electrical Times will show- ‘Legislation is now being promoted by the Ontario Legislature to make available £400,000 out of the Public Treasury to be used exclusively as loans to owner farmers to pay for costs of electrical installation and equipment. These loans are not to exceed £2OO, and are to be, repayable over a period of 20 years.’ “Furthermore,” he continued, a reduction in rates for electricity is proposed, and the legislation proposed provides for payment out of the consolidated fund, of the province of any difference between the actual cost and the amount realised on the new rate in any rural district. In other words, the Ontario Provincial Government is prepared to assist rural consumers by making grants to the Hydro-Electrical Commission for loss in revenue due to lower rates for current to such consumers. Until the initial impost of £2 per k.v.a. imposed in New Zealand has been removed it cannot be said it is policy of the Public Works Department to make serious efforts to help backblock settlers to obtain current, but rather by their methods of charging they are actually imposing some restriction on rural development.