BOARD AND DEPARTMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20605, 2 July 1930, Page 10

BOARD AND DEPARTMENT.

The anomalous position of the Auckland Power Board has again been emphasised by Mr. Holdsworth in reviewing the provisional arrangements for emergency power supplies. Eleven distributing authorities are being supplied by the Public Works Department from its-four subsidiary plants, and an undertaking has been given by the Minister of Public Works that no increase will be made in charges. That assurance will presumably include the supply when it is augmented by the steamgenerating plant which the Government proposed to erect in the Waikato. The Auckland board has relieved the department of all responsibility for maintaining the. supply required by its own district; it is faced with operating expenses that will make the cost of electricity 60 or 70 per cent, greater than current from Arapuni; it is presently to give important assistance in the rural districts ; and it is .to increase its generating plant, partly for the benefit of the general supply. These proposals involve a serious imposition upon the Auckland-board, and consequently upon its consumers, in the way of higher operating costs and additional capital charges. The only concession that Mr;.Holdsworth has been able to, gain so far. is a promise that when-the .State supply is restored <he department will pay half the capital charges of the King's Wharf plant. Naturally, Mr. Holdsworth proposes to advise the board to press for more equitable treatment. A case could be made for proposing that the extra cost of power during the emergency should be borne by the electricity department so that the city as well as the country boards.would hot be charged any more for power. There ale stronger arguments for asking the department to pay all the capital charges, including maintenance, of the steam plant, since it is now admitted that it must lie kept in efficient order as a reserve against future interruptions. .The., present'.] attitude of the Minister and the department cannot . bo. reasonably maintained. They presume that tho Auckland board will strain its plant and its finances to the utmost, without tho slightest relief during the whole period of emergency, and be satislicd with a 50 per cent, subsidy at some future date: '.'cooperation is to be on the part of the Auckland board, for it has met'with a cold reception even when it suggested that power should be supplied from the Government stations during tho slack night periods to facilitate overhaul. of its own machinery. The Government has committed itself lightly' enough in : onerous undertakings:/to the other boards: the Auckland btfai'd' is en- ( . titled, and in the interests of its customers bound, to press its cliiini for relief from charges which equitably should be borne by the department. J