THE PEOPLE'S COLUMN.

Northern Advocate, 17 January 1920, Page 1

THE PEOPLE'S COLUMN.

ELECTRIC POWER BOARD.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Having been interested as secretary of a voluntary organisation which has conducted the negotiations for the constitution of an Electric Power Board in Waikato and believing that a similar organiastion must sooner or later interest the .people of the North—as of the whole Dominion—may I, through your columns, urge consideration now. The Electric Power Boards Act was passed into law in 1918 with a view to enabling "any continuous area" to become operative for the generation and distribution of electric energy. Within a power district there may be boroughs, counties or road districts which, after proper engineering enquiry, are deemed suitable for the electrical enterprise. The administration passes under the control of a power board whose members give representation to each "constituent district" within the power area—just as riding members give representation over the whole of a county. It is, indeed t a large county, but with ; ts function, instead of the building of roads and bridges, the electrification of the district on a large and comprehensive scale, and to give the advantages of cheap electric power to county as well as to town.

In the district I have been interest, ed in a conference representative of the elective and non-elective public bodies was held in the first instance and the proposal to constitute a power district affirmed. An executive carried on the negotiations, which included the engagemnt of an engineer to define an "economical area for reticulation," the preparation of a petition to the Government for the necessary Order in Council creating the distrct, an application for a license, and generally all those details leading up to the election of the initial board. We have had our district made operative and are within a few weeks of the first election. Our area takes in approximatly 400 square miles of country all of which must be supplied with the power at a uniform rate of charge. In our case, the power will be supplied from the national generating station at Hora Hora, and later on from Arapuni. Our experience serves as an outline of the general procdure. In the North, I understand, private enterprise, has carried on the work at the head works and now sells power in bulk. Further, "that very little reticulation has been attempted j beyond the borough boundary. By way of comparison it Is worthy of note that Southland has created a Power Board to utilise the water pow. er resources and reticulate a large area. In Taranaki, under local selfgovernment, a large scheme is being developed, and in Waikato large power districts will distribute the current from national headworks. The North is the only district I know of where private enterprise is relied upon, and it might be aptly suggested that the water power resources of the Dominion belong to the people and should be retained in the control jf the People, The Electric Power Boards Act provides ample machinery whereby the principles of responsible local government may be applied to large district electrification systems, and it might be suggested that the people of the North are prejudicing their future by allowing the hydroelectric stations, wheh supply the people, to pass under the control of private enterprise—a control which must inevitably be strengthened by time. And it may be timely to consider how far this is true. In Waikatp the Waihi Goldmining Company's power station at Hora Hora has been over by the State, thus offering a precedent'for the North. Either the headworks here should be nationalised or taken over by a Power Board, and, when once some form of public control is thus assured, a large scheme of reticulation under a Power Board would prove of considerable advantage—directly and indirectly— to the whole district. It seems to me., as a visitor, that there is here v great opportunity for public enterprise to keep pace with what is being done in the southern provinces.—l am, etc., A. G. WARBURTON. Te Awamutu.