SUPPLY OF POWER

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24747, 22 November 1943, Page 2

SUPPLY OF POWER

BOARDS PERPLEXED

ATTITUDE OF DEPARTMENT (0.C.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Sunday Concern at the continued sale of electrical appliances to the public at a time when the power supply in the Dominion is insufficient to meet demands pressed in a letter to all supply authonties from the Electric-Power Boards and Supply Authorities' Association received bv the South Taranaki ElectricalPower Board. The secretary of the association. Mr. E. W . Swain, he had received a letter from the Electricity Controller, Mr. F. T. M. Kissel who said he could not see that there were .sufficient grounds at present on which he could recommend to the Government any further measures on the sale of appliances. Replying to Mr. Kissel. Mr. Swam said he was perplexed by the whole situation. He asked Mr. Kissel if the supply authorities were to have a prop-erlv-designed and thought-out plan for handling the control of electricity next winter and if Mr. Kissel did not think it was time someone did something about it in a positive rather , than a negative fashion. The only conclusion that could be drawn from the correspondence relating to appliances was that the Electricity Controller did not regard the position as at all urgent or difficult. Boards, however, regarded their chances of keeping the load within the limits imposed by the controller as most remote.

"Can you give me in a few words a message to send to boards saying whether yon regard the situation seriously or not, whether you consider further measures than those already taken should be put in hand,_ and whether, we are to interpret the information in your letter to mean that we can let up arid connect all the load offerine?" asked Mr. Swain of Mr. Kissel. "Many of the boards feel that such action would be the logical conclusion to draw from the department's stand in the matter. The boards seem to fee! that the department's actions do not in any way indicate that sense of urgency implicit in adherence to such drastic limits as those placed upon them."

TOWN MILK SUPPLY

PRODUCERS' GRIEVANCE (0.C.) WELLINGTON, Saturday The gravest dissatisfaction at what is termed "unfair discrimination" between suppliers of milk for domestic consumption and suppliers for butter or cheese-making is felt by the former, according to a statement issued by Mr. r J. Maher, chairman of the Wellington Primary Production Council and chairman of the Wellington Dairy Farmers' Co-operative Association, * Limited. "This dissatisfaction," he adds, "is bound to be reflected in a still further reduction in the supply of milk dufiner the winter of 1944. "Farmers supplying milk for domestic consumption find that their nextdoor neighbours producing for butter or cheese manufacture are getting some compensation toward increased costs, while suppliers producing for domestic consumption are denied alleviation of the extra burden of costs," says Mr. Maher. "The case even arises where suppliers to the same factory receive differential treatment owing; to the different destinations of their product—the producer who is called upon to produce a higher qualitv article for domestic _ consumption being discriminated against by being denied any compensation toward increased costs'."

REHABILITATION WORK

OVER £1,000,000 IN LOANS 'O.c.) WELLINGTON. Sunday A statement in regard to the rehabilitation of servicemen, particularly from the standpoint of the loan programme administered by the State Advances Corporation as "agent for 'the Rehabilitation Board, shows that the corporation s activities are confined to loans for tools of trade, furniture business, residential, and farms and stock. Ihe total number of loans authorised tor the month of October was 216, involving £121,837. Ihe total loans authorised up to October 31 are set out as follows* Tools oMrade. 91, £2248; furniture 1122 £9< ,990; business, 11.8, £40,9(36-' residential, 449, £449.840; farms and £l C m 383 ' £440 ' 334; tota! > 1931.

Residential loans cover both the erection of dwellings and the purchase of existing dwellings, and a further factor toward the provision of houses for discharged servicemen is the allocation of State rental houses Up to September 30, 1943, a total of 1143 State houses and flats had been allocated to ex-servicemen throughout the Dominion.

COAL CARBONISATION <O-C-> WESTPORT. Saturday r A meeting of the Westport Coal Utilisation Committee presided over bv the Mayor, Mr. J. M. Robertson, decided to urge the Government through the Minister of Mines, the Hon. P C Webb, to implement the scheme'of Mr J 1). McDonald for the establishment of a low-temperature coal carbonisation plant at Charleston, Westport. The Government is to be asked to have a test made by the Scientific and Industrial Research Department at Wellington of Buller coal, and, if that is successful, a full-scale test at the Waikato plant.