WEALTH FROM WATER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, 13 January 1921, Page 4

WEALTH FROM WATER

HYDRO-ELECTRIC DISTRICTS THE LEGAL ' ■ A ’ n. _ ■■' l ■ If. the people of a districtto have, some nay a supply of. current, in accordance with the’' provisions of the Electric-Power BoardsAct and the regulations, the first step is the formation of an electricpower district, of which the boundaries must have the approval of the Governor in Council. The following advice bp that matter is given in the Public Works Statement of 1920:- ? ' ; » “With regard to the future developments under the Electric-power Boards Act, the principles on w r hjch< the boundaries of new districts should. be fietermined are not sot out in the Act, A but the responsibility of deciding whether proposed boundaries ar©. advisable' or; otherwise <s cast on the Governor-Gen; oral in Council, and it is obvious that if the whole Dominion is to be dealt with in the best way possible it, is esr sential that a comprehensive scheme * should' be drawn up, and in future new district should be arranged, as far as possible to comply with this scheme. In order to decide the correct areas into which the Dominion should be divided for the purposes, of "the Act .the following considerations must be taken into account:—;' , “(a.) The district must be large enough to have financial strength. For this purpose the demand should be at least 800 H.p. to 1000 big.,, .yielding a revenue to the Board of to £15,000 per year, and involving a population of at least four' Diopaapd to five thousand persons;, th£ minimum siz*e ip cases intwhich geographical and other considerations do not permit of a 'larger district. In the general case the district should be three to five times ths size, ( and; ip special cases in which a sUpply v wiU fidfe be available for some yearsj and. th® Board has to establish its Own powerstation. the district should be as large as can be economically supplied from the available power source at "the of five head of population ‘per horsepower. . ■ : : “(b.) The district shopld ipclude both town and country V. areas,* ’ but should have a distinct community of commercial and The country districts , cluded with the towns i thTOUgh’'vypicP . their produce is sold andytßefr\;hhc«afflji-. *' ties purchased, and the.wholp v pf "the . back ;a>ne. centre shoukl •cent rs:t. ,<|o- - signed iblfdsteiT‘'dMnatural community -6f Wdingrlnterl ests. ’ . !' ,“(c.) The district must fco/dpsigned I to give distributioh-MPes "to ensum rootfr eppf nomical construction. . patrol and maiPtcPPPce," '■ Frdjp' thjs. l point of. .view ■ sist, %&e^er^*^kswl?p-'pt<ynDpuiuain!<.. I rapgesjjr Inis©’ ’ as 'the” Walm&kanri'ana ' ■: I “(d.) The district mast-hpide.'UgDpi to utilise as Ifir ,m ■ . of distribution. Splqct||k| suitable for th£ I vernraent transmissiop, system, ’.and as far as possible the whole/output- of ) each of the main Government, ■ sub- > stations, should be taken, -over byvvia , • Single Pow§r' jpdM.; will not j always ,bb possible, OTving, tp the., • I graphical cbnfigdfatibmbf theHiatnd-/ buttiicmld geneihllyb^ I Tor''i^|ng•Vtatißfcical i :.p(Alr r poses it' TyiU bp adyisab|o as ’ far , rbps posjubK vcouniy ~ I I Boundaries-whpnpver cpnfornnapi. pfoiimately' to-" the- aßoye considerations.’* ’* l '“" ‘ “ f:! ', , ! SUGGESTED X>I§TRICTS , ! ' Th© ? list‘of districts in the public* Work® Statement of 1920 comprises 36 in the North Island and 18 in the ; South,.as follow:—North Island-.—-Whangaroa, Hobson, Whangarei, Rodney, Waitemata,a Auckland, Manukau, Frank- ■ lin, Hamilton, Thames ,VaUey v> iT» i Awainutu,i Te Kuiti, . Taumatunui, Waxraarlhoi Taihapej; New Dlymputhj i Hawera, Stratfordy-Rateai Wanjganpi,' • Rangitikei, Manaw-atur Horowhenua, i Wellington, Hutt Valley, Wairprapa, ; Fahiktua, J)annevirke> Ajpaipw^* Hawke’s Bay, Wairoa, Poverty Bay, . Whakhtane, Rotorua, Taurangffr EaSfi - Taupo. ’ a ■ South Island Nelson, Buller, Greymouth, Westland, Marlboro Ugh; Wai- . para, Rangiora, Christchurch, Banks’ i SeUvyn, Ashi 9 6 ?8°» SoUlh 4 Otagu; Southland) Queenstown, i Details of-the suggested’ electric- , power- districts of|Nelson, Marlborough ahd Bullet ; are i~; ' , - kelson I—NelsOii'City, .population of 87^4: Richmond Borough, _ 922: Mo-' tueka Borough. 1476 ; Waimea County, 9284; Takakk County, 1858; , OpK lingwood County, 12631 total popvOaborough County, 6915; -Sounds., County,, iSOlyAwatpre County, kourav Goinil-yi; .19^15: Hoi;9e-pdU:er,'33oo. f . s = : Borough, 4067.; Bnm%u^ tyi'; 1251 a D»nßkhua ! • » PROCEDURE BY RETITI^ T^. The in the.constitution of ati electric-power district ifi the signing of a petition in proper form by at least 25 per cent of the ratepayers of the district. If several *»ung; Uis- • tries are combined for the purpose or forming one electric-power least ‘per cent of’its its petition list before it can be included in the: combined ■ 8 J»atier-:oo;:obtaim^ {t of 2o per cent of the ratepayers in the : combined ayea, |)Ut' 25 pgr ppnt nf tho , ratepayers in each j trict. To comply with the Act tap petition, form circulated in the district must define the boundaries as reepnrcirculated iri a district a CPPY be submitted to the Pnhho, Works aUtliofities, WelliUgton.- - ‘ , : : The formation of an electric-power district does not commit the rate- . payers to a scheme of works. The selection of ,q- scheme is . the ; fe«md stage, a matter of policy for the Power Board elected by. ratepayer.s of the district. During the ejectwh campaign the ratepayers have their . opportunity to discuss points of policy.. Finally, with the loan poll, tlie ratepayers give the judgment on the scheme . submitted ’by the elected board. ' / ' * ’ ,■ . • go Lip .the. ratepayers of elgctnc-

power districts hare voted emphatical- . ly’ for loans. The Public Works Statement gives the following results:— Amount of loan. For. Agst.

Southland 1500,000 6516 410 ♦Thames Valiev 900,000 1503 28 Te Awamatu 120,000 359 0 Cambridge 60,000 198 3 Banks Peninsula 100,000 331 23 This means that in five polls the votes in favour of loans totalled 8907 against 469. THE POSITION IN NELSON

Apparently-according to the resolutions of conferences—local bodies of the Nelson, Marlborough, and Buffer districts have a willingness to co-oper-ate with a big scheme for the development of one large source of power, in preference to a separate head-works for each district, but the local hodieis have not yet sufficient data to enable them to have a clear view of thd cost factors.' Meanwhile Nelson, Marlborough, and Duller have boon concerned with the formation of separate power districts. In Marlborough the circulation of a petition has nearly reached the final stage, but in Nelson a Hitch has occurred. The petition form, was not headed in a manner to comply with the regulations, for it had not a definition of boundaries approved by the Governor-General in Council. Until the petition form has the definite sanction of the State authorities the obtaining of signatures may be a waste of time and money. ' A point Fas been raised by Mr Snodgass (Mayor of Nelson) that if one constituent district, such as Richmond Borough,’ did not give signatures of at least 25 per cent of the ratepayers in favour of petition for the formation of an electric-power district, the movement would be nullified. Up to the present, no such hitch has occurred in the promotion of. any petition in other districts, but trouble has been caused by delays in sending petition forms to Wellington for approval. THE DELAYED SURVEY

The statutory is explained in to-day’s leading article. As far back'as May, 1920, there was a large, enthusiastic public meeting at Nelson-*—practically a conference of delegates of Nelson, Marlborough, and Ruller—rfor tho discussion of preliminary matters in connection with hy-dro-electric proposals. The Chief Electrical Engineer (Mr L. Birks) the many advantages of cheap electria Bower, .and concluded with a remark that “he was present to sound their feelings and seel if they -were prepared to’develop the hydro-electric power of their provinces.” This meeting and other meetings have shown that their ‘iffelingd” are strongly in favour of the prospective blessings outlined by Mr Birks/ but tile Public Works DenartmenVhas yet iohegin the’ era of missings with a preliminary survey. v'The meeting of 2lst May, 1920, redyed, on the'motion of Mr Corry (Mayor of Blenheim).: “That this representative meeting',of (combined local bodies of Nelson. Buller, and Marlborough being convinced that their i necessities require immediate installation of-hydroelectric energy, request! that a sum of £it)oo be placed upon) the Estimates to enable a comprehen- | sive survey to be obtained of the vario\ts sources of power in their districts with a view to the immediate installation of the one most suitable to the general need.” - Mr Birks has stated that £IOOO Is available for the survey, and he estimates that this work ca'n be completed in four, months (from the beginning of, the actual survey). - He is now endeavouring to engage a suitable surveyor.