POWER-LINE EXTENSION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19384, 20 July 1926, Page 12

POWER-LINE EXTENSION

UNPAYABLE AREAS SHUNNED. A QUESTION OF POLICY. EFFECT UPON DEVELOPMENT. , t The question of carrying electricity to outlying and unpayable areas was " discussed by the Auckland Electric Power Board yesterday when a petition to be supplied with power was received from nine residents of Takanini. Mr. E. H. Potter presided. . The officers of the board reported that the district in which the petitioners lived was scattered as far as population was concerned and that, whereas a revenue of £9O annually would be required to make the area pay, it was estimated that only £3O a year would be obtained., The greater part of Takanini, it was stated, had been "made alive" on July 11. Mr. F. M. Waters said the district was rapidly growing and new estates were being opened up. He thought it would be unwise to neglect the ; area.

Mr. R. G. Clark said that on previous occasions the board had refused such applications on the ground that all lines must be made to pay for themselves. He remembered one petition in the Avondale district which was granted only after the residents in the road had agreed to pay an extra rate to compensate the board for the deficient revenue. Mr. T. Bloodworth said that if it were the board's policy to withhold power from the . outlying country areas the development of semi-rural districts would be discouraged. His own opinion of the board's policy was that districts were taken as a whole and power was supplied to all parts provided the districts in their entirety were self-supporting. The discouragement of development in these outer areas was emphasised by other speakers, one of whom expressed the opinion that residential building would be coflfined to those roads down which the power-lines had been taken beforehand. Mr. J. Dempsey said he thought it should be possible to stretch a point in the present case. He knew of a road in the outer portion of Mount Roskill which had been reticulated and which could not' possibly be self-supporting. He did not thin!: the board ever intended such roads should pay for themselves when it took 1 its lines down them, nor was there any intention to peglect them until they did pay. * Mr. M. J. Bennett: I am not going to be a party to the spending of £IOOO for which we only get £3O in return.

It was decided to make a visit of inspection to Takanini on a date to be arranged. With respect to a further application for the extension of reticulation to several roads in Mount Roskill South, including Mays, Ridge, White Swan and Richardson Roads and Halsey Drive, the supply engineer,- Mr. E. Hutchinson, reported that, in view of the post and the annual return to be obtained, he could not recommend' the work to be carried out at present. The report was adopted with the . proviso that the matter should be reviewed in six months.