ELECTRICITY CONTRACT.

Northern Advocate, 24 July 1923, Page 8

ELECTRICITY CONTRACT.

DEPARTMENTAL OFFER,

SURPRISES CITY COUNCIL,

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day,

The City Councillors were taken by surprise last night when a letter from the Minister of Public Works was iv.d, stating that if the Council were prepared to forego the remaining IS months of the electricity cor.trxct, which expires on March 31, 1925, the Department was prepare 1 to enter iilto a fresh contract for t"n at a discount of ten per cent, off standard rates. The chairman of the Electricity Committee said that the Department's offer was somewhere about a 60 per cent, increase on the present rates, and for the next 18 months the ?.ost would be £33,000 extra for electricity over and above the present rate.

The Mayor said it was rather surprising at this late stage, after the Council had investigated the Waimakariri scheme, that the Government should offer a ten years' contract in consideration of the Council foregoing the present contract. A report on the Waimakariri scheme would be available in a few days.

Cr. E. J. Howard, M.P. for Christchurch South: "We will have fo fight on the floor of the House."

: The Mayor: "The time has come When ali the city Members of Parliament must fight the battle on the floor of the House."

The Council decided to discuss the matter at a special meeting next Mon-day/7-P res s Assn.

i Qjne of Masterton's oldest inhabitants informed a "Wairarapa Daily Times" reporter that the present spell of bad weather is the longest ''sloppy" period he has ever experienced in .;hi a sixty years' residencethere.