POWER SUPPLY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 18, 21 December 1936, Page 9

POWER SUPPLY

THE ECONOMIC ASPECT. LOCAL BODY VIEW. Per Press Association. GISBORNE, Dec. 19. “The question of giving power boards authority to extend their lines into outlying areas without satisfactory guarantees, and the question of subsidising both capital and revenue expenditure in lieu of guarantees, are for the Government to decide,” stated the chairman (Mr E. 11. Bail) at a meeting of the Poverty Bay Power Board. “Doubtless the advisability or otherwise of erecting these uneconomic lines will first be considered. With reference to the demand for further reticulation of Southland, where the State is in full control, Southland now presents a very interesting situation in that the avowed policy of the Minister of Public "Works is similar to the initial policy of the Southland board, which policy brought disaster to the board. The Southland board set out to give an electric service to every person in Southland; it built miles of uneconomic lines and later pulled clown miles of these lines, which would not pay even operating costs. Southland settlers in the outlying districts are again looking for electricity to be brought to their homes. The Government is not bound by statute or regulations, but has the Government unlimited finances to carry out the work? Will it re-erect these iines that have been pulled down, and will it erect other lines at a heavy loss to give an electricity supply to individuals while thousands of our poorer people in the towns and thickly populated areas cannot avail themselves of the benefits of the electric supply at their doors owing to the high initial cost of installing the requisite appliances in their homes ?

“I have brought this matter forward because, in recent months, there seems to have been a tendency to emphasise every minor trouble experienced by power authorities and to ignore, not only the statutory obligations of the hoards, but also the great amount of good development work carried out by them,” concluded Mr Ball.