Want Community Lights For Kaikohe

Northern Advocate, 9 November 1939, Page 9

Want Community Lights For Kaikohe

tSvecial to “Northern Advocate ”] KAIKOHE, This Day.

Although several businessmen have as yet failed to agree to the community lighting scheme suggested for Kaikohe by the Bay Power Board, it is likely that the scheme will be adopted. At a meeting of the Kaikohe Chamber of Commerce, community lighting was discussed at length, and members were unanimously of the opinion that the town could not afford to bo without a proper scheme. Mr W. S. Thorpe, the secretary of the Power Board, who is also a member of the chamber, said that unless the majority of the business people favoured the. scheme, it would be valueless. In his opinion, the charge being made by the board was one of the lowest in New Zealand. Shopowners were to be charged £2 per year for each light in front of their premises, the charge to include installation, maintenance and cleaning. Mr W. Stewart, a new member of the chamber, expressed surprise at the fact that shop-owners refused to co-operate. “I am only a newcomer to Kaikohe,” he said, “but you have no idea how dismal the town looked when I first saw it at night. I had never seen anything like it before.” A • committee comprising Messrs W. Stewart, C. Cameron and W. M. Wilkinson, together with the board’s engineer, is to visit those business people who in the past have failed 1o come into the scheme.