Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1935. POWER BOARD CONTRACT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 176, 25 June 1935, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1935. POWER BOARD CONTRACT.

A new contract between the Public Works Department and the Manawatu-Oroua Power Board, governing' the conditions under which electricity will be bought by the distributing agent and the cost, was signed yesterday in Palmerston North by the Board at a special meeting. The agreement takes force as from July 1, six days hence, a date that is of supreme importance to Palmerston North. Then the temporary arrangement under which the city is now receiving power from the Board will cease, and another must be made. The basis of supply in the Power Board’s contract with the Government does not provide for electricity to be sold to the city, which is an integral part of the Board’s district, but it has been made clear that the agreement can be amended to provide for either a temporary or permanent arrangement. That Palmerston, North must have power from July 1 equal to the present requiremenls is patent to all. The question for the City Council to answer, and to do so immediately so that citizens and industrial concerns shall be reassured, is how does it intend to go about the matter. There are two ways open to it—either through its own generating station at Terrace End or entirely from, the Power Board. As the Council has decided to expend between £20,000 and £25,000 upon costly extensions at the plant .to make the city independent of the Board, it is obvious that this station cannot take up the present load. The city authorities must, in that alternative, go to the Board for supply, or find some other means of obtaining electricity from the Government. As, however, the Boards have been constituted the distributing agents, will the Minister —the Public Works Department —make a separate and direct arrangement for supply? It may be that the City Council has a trump card to play of which the citizens have not been informed; but from the tenor of the discussion at the Board meeting, led by rural members, it appeared that the city must look to this source for power. That being so, the most important issue for Palmerston North arises.

The Minister has bound the Board not to supply electricity, without his consent in writing, to an authority that uses its own plant to cut the peak load. In blunt language, the city must take all its power or generate the lot itself. And if it elects to buy from the Board it is to be charged standard rates plus £4S(JU for the service line, should the arrangement be temporary, and standard rates plus a service charge of £2750 for all k.v.a. supplied up to 2750 k.v.a., plus £1 per k.v.a. per annum extra for all over 2750. Under a temporary arrangement the city is obviously to be made to pay for the dispute with the Board, an imposition that is not to its credit. We have already expressed our views on the matter fully. It is well past the time the two local authorities should have reached a settlement which would bring town and country together instead of sundering them, and have prevented the wasteful expenditure of a large sum of money on the Palmerston North power station. If the present City Council looks definitely to the future with Palmerston North generating and distributing all its electricity, and meanwhile the city is growing yearlyin population, it must assure the citizens that the station will be competent to fulfill what is to be expected of it, and that the cost will not be greater than supply from the national system. Has it

done so ? Further, what guarantee can there be that the station will not break down and industries be hampered and private people inconvenienced to a serious extent ? The City Council, it is honestly believed, is treading on dangerously thin ic.e in this matter and should have sought arbitration as the Power Board will not consider anything' that does not suit the will of the rural members. In the meantime the Council could also have taken up the matter of some recompense where local authorities have their own plants and that of standard charges without variation. At preseut the city is most apprehensive of the alarming manner in which the dispute has drifted and would welcome a settlement.