HOBSON POWER BOARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20255, 15 May 1929, Page 11

HOBSON POWER BOARD.

PROPOSED ENLARGED AREA. NEED FOR LARGE LOANS. [BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT..] DARG-AVTLLB, Tuesday. The annual meeting of the . Hobson Electric-Power Board was held yesterday when Mr. J. A. McLean was re-elected chairman. The annual report and balance-sheet disclosed a credit balance of £319 3s Bd, of which £250 was on fixed deposit, and the balance on current account. There was a contingent liability of £SO, the balance of the cost of the

load survey. The business of the board, said Mr. McLean, would become much more important from now onward that it was in the past. There was being faced the enlargement of the board's area and the placing before the ratepayers of loan proposals for at least £250,000. In the past year the board completed the most important work attempted since its formation. Early in the year it engaged Mr. T. R. Overton to make a load survey, Which was completed in October last, arid was very satisfactory, except for the fact that It disclosed that the board's estimated consumption of electricity was not sufficiently largoto allow it to enter into a contract with the Government for the supply of power, and it also disclosed that it was necessary for tho board lo enlarge its area by the inclusion of Otamatea and Whangarei Counties.

A conference was held in Dargaville between representatives of the Hobson Power Board, Otamatea _ County, and Whangarei County, and it was decided unanimously to recommend the respective councils to immediately circulate petitions with the object of joining up with the board. It was decided that in future members of the board shall. be allowed travelling expenses when attending meetings, on the scale provided in the Act.