ELECTRIC LINE POLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18207, 28 September 1922, Page 8

ELECTRIC LINE POLES.

SUPPLIES FOR BOARDS. TREE-PLANTING WANTED* MINISTER ADVISES CAUTION. [»T TELEGRAPK. —SPECIAL REPORTER-] WELLINGTON, Wednesday. * A proposal of considerable importance in reference to electric) reticulation came before tho Tower Boards Conference this morning, when the Te Awamutu Board suggested that provision be made in the Electric Powor Boards Act to allow power boards to acquire land for the purpose of growing timber suitable for electric line poles. The Te Awamutu delegate, Mr. Johnson, stated that his board had placed an order in Australia for £16,000 worth of poles. Such a procedure would be recurrent unless tho board could grow trees for its own poles. Mr. W. J. Holdsworth (Auckland) thought tho matter was purely and simply one for tho Forestry Department. New Zealand trees might not be suitable for the purposes of poles, and Australian trees might not grow hore. Those were questions for the Forestry Department to determine. Ho opposed the remit. One delegate stated that Now Zealand trees had proved more suitable for electric lino poles than Australian. Totara cut out 10 years ago was still sound, whereas Australian iron-bark poles had rotted. Another speaker declared that' there could be no doubt that a lot of the poles from Australia were valueless. The Minister for Public Works, Hon. J. G. Obates, who presided over the conference, said ho did not want to throw cold water on the proposal, but he thought it would be wise to allow the matter to stand over for 12 months. After all a power board's first job was to supply power. What would be the general impression out&ido if they took all the powers of a local authority and then went beyond them in order to go in for a tree-planting scheme? He was in entiro sympathy with the proposal, but they could only go a certain distance. The boards might find themselves in the position of having to answer to the ratepayers for using borrowed money for the purchase of land for tree-planting, although he admitted that the land might not cost very much, and in the second instance the boards might have to answer for having used profits to buy land'. He thought they should attempt to carry out the first work successfully. That was to reticulate the area and give the consumers power at the cheapest possible cost. Profits should gojjack to the consumer. He rather douoted whether #at that stage they should attempt anything more than was absolutely necessary, for tho reason that they wanted the public and tho country to have absolute confidence in the system of reticulation. That happened to be the first job. They knew they had to face the other question later on, but he doubted the wisdom of doing anything at once. He knew there would be those who would say " do it now," bat in some cases he thought it was just as well to consider before doing anything. It was finally decided to recommend to the Forestry Department that it should make provision for the planting of treea suitable for electric line poles, and that the question of making provision in the Act enabling power boards to acquire land for tree-planting purposes bo considered in 12 months time.

CONFERENCE OF BOARDS. MANY REMITS ADOPTED. THE POSITION OF MEMBERS. [BT TELEGRAMS.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON. Wednesday. At the conference of delegates representing the electric power boards of the Dominion. Mr. T. Hinton moved a remit to the effect that as under section 15 of the Electric Power Boards Act it is illegal for a member of a. board to be a consumer of electricity to a greater extent than £10 in any ono year or to enter into an agreement with the board of which h« is a member for the installation of electric equipment of over that value, the Act bo amended so that members of boards have rights in these respects equal to those of other ratepayers. Tho remit also proposed that there should bo an amendment on the lines of the Murwiipai Corporations Amendment Act, and also that the sub-section should be repealed which debarred a member who had forfeited his seat from being re-elected for three years. Mr. J. D. Johnston (Te Awamutu) said that under the Counties Act a member of a county council could enter into s, contract up to £50 at tho discretion of the Audit Department, which was a reasonable safeguard. It waa unjust that a member who had lost his seat should not be elected for three years. The remit was carried.

The Hon. J. G. Coatea suggested that it was pronosed to amend the Bill to meet certain cases, although it had not yet been decided to bring it into lino with the Counties Act. The principle of a power boards' association was confirmed, but it was agreed that such would hardly be necessary while conferences were to be called. Mr. T. Hanson (Dannevirke) moved that the Government bo requested to arrange loans to power boards in conjunction with the State Advances Office. The Government, he said, should raise a loan and make advances to the boards to enable them to meet lesser expenses. The Minister remarked that the Publio Trust Office had made nine advances, amounting 1 to £424,000, in such cases on satisfactory terms. The remit was adopted. Mr. J. A. Nash, M.P.. moved that boards be given power to borrow against any rate struck without collecting it for tho purpose of meeting preliminary and other expenses, and to enable the wnole of the overdraft to be refunded out of loan. The remit was carried. A special committee was appointed to meet the engineers of the Post and Telegraph, Railways, and Public Worka Departments, concerning remits affecting those departments. PLEA BY PRIVATE FIRMS. SHARE OF WORK WANTED. [BT telegraph.—press association.] WELLINGTON. Wednesday. At the conference of delegates of electrio power boards a deputation representing from 30 to 40 electrical firms, waited upon the conference. The deputation directed attention to the considerable stake that private electrical firms had in the country. They paid considerable sums in income tax and other disbursements and employed considerable numbers of bands. Their interests were also those of the power boards and they wanted to impress on power boards that New Zealand firms had sufficient facilities to meet their requirements at less cost than by going outside the country. Any reticulation work could be done at a reasonable cost. There was a feeling among power boards that there was a " ring " in electrical firms and that they could do better by doing the work themselves. It had ta.ken a long time to get a staff together capable of carrying out th« work required and they could now do the work cheaper than the board could do it themael>-es. As taxpayers, they sought to protect their own, interests ana hoped the boards would give them consideration. The deputation was informed that the points raked would receive consideration.