POWER CONFERENCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21911, 21 September 1934, Page 12

POWER CONFERENCE

CRITICISM OF VALUE REPLY BY SOUTHERN CHAIRMAN [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Thursday The statements made by Mr. W. J. Hoklsworth, chairman of the Auckland Electric-Power Board, that the conference of the Electric-Power Boards and Local Supply Authorities' Association "got nowhere," was "quite valueless' and discussed "piffling remits," were criticised by Mr. S. Blacklev, representative of the Hutt Valley Elec-tric-Power Board at the conference, at a meeting of the board to-day. "I do not subscribe to the statements made by Mr. Hoklsworth, which might convey a wrong impression of the work done at the conference," said Mr. Blackley. "When one submits a report to a committee one should not lie annoyed because his report is not swallowed wholesale. That is what happened, and it is not quite the thing for a member of the executive committee to refer to the work of the conference as 'valueless' and remits as 'piffling' and to say that the conference 'got nowhere.'

"At every conference there are bound to be one or two 'piffling remits,' and the proper course then is to do as Mr. Holdsworth said —pigeon-hole them."

MR. HOLDSWORTH SUPPORTED OTAGO BOARD MEMBER [by tkmccraph—OWN correspondent] DUXKDIX. Thursday Reference to the statement by Mr. W. J. Holdsworth, chairman of the Auckland Electric-Power Board, in which he characterised the recenk conference of power boards in Wellington as being "quite valueless," was made bv a member of the Otago Power Board, Mr. C. Pi. Smith, at a meeting of the board. Mr. Smith agreed with Mr. Holdsworth, saying that. £IOOO had been spent on the holding of this year's conference, the money being simply wasted. What was wanted was a scheme whereby more electricity could be sold at a profit. The cost of power was making it difficult for many of the rural power boards to carry on. They had to pay high rates for their power, and had only a few consumers to the mile, while some of the city supply authorities were getting their power for little more than half the same figure and they had 100 or more consumers to tho mile. There seemed to be little use in passing resolutions, only to see them pigeon-holed by the Government. The conference was a failure, and only gave the delegates the opportunity to air their grievances without seeing any result. Mr. Smith expressed the opinion that there were too many power boards.