THE PRICE OF POWER

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12249, 22 September 1925, Page 11

THE PRICE OF POWER

COMPLAINTS FROM OTAKI REDUCTION UNLIKELY THIS YEAR HEAVY CHARGES TO MEET Complaints about the cost of electricity were ventilated at the last meeting of the Horowhenua Power Board, when Mr C. Kilsby, of Otaki, said the Otaki Chamber of Commerce had asked him >vhy they could not get current for lighting at 6d per unit, instead of Bd. The chamber had an idea that the board was not getting the money advanced for installations back fast enough, and consequently that it liad to charge extra for lighting on that account. He told them that there was no hope of getting any reduction for the next twelve months. They quoted Hutt and Feeding, which were only paying 6d. The chairman said Fedding consumers were paying 9d. Mr Kilsby said he pointed out that in the Hutt the Government carried the transmission line right through, and Feilding bad a breaking-down station nearby at Bunnythorpe, whereas the Horowhenua Board had 60 miles of expensive high-tension wires to put in. The price of current was really fixed before the board commenced to supply it. “COMPARISONS ARE ODIOUS’’ The chairman (Mr Monk) said that so far as power boards were concerned, comparisons were odious. No board could say whether its scheme was going to pay any more than tho Horowhenua Board could. They had formed estimates and thought they could bring out their accounts square on those estimates. The district that the Hutt Board' had worked so far had been chiefly a town district and they had reticulated that. In that kind of area they had hundreds of consumers per mile and got a concentrated industrial load as well. It might be that the Hutt could therefore supply power cheaper, but until, the schemes had been working for some time it was difficult to say. WELLINGTON’S POSITION Comparison, had been made between the Horowhenua and those of the Wellington City Council. The latter had been in the business for a good long time, and a special loan had been raised to purchase the. electric light syndicate works. ' They did not know whether the interest on tjiat was being paid.by a special rate ’or out of revenue. The Horowhenua Board could reduoe .lighting charges in the same way by putting-on a rate it Jliat were -wanted. Mr Brown: Don’t put a rate on, for gSodness sake I We are heavily enough rated now.. Mr Mon k said he was quite prepared to go before' the Otaki Cham-ber-of Commerce and give an account of the board’s operations. .They did not want people to be dissatisfied. They wanted the public to ;know what the board was doing. He would be glad to make one to go Along with Mr Kilsby and address aM Cn Maher of Commerce. Mr Kilsby said he thought the Chamber would welcome that. He had told the chamber that lighting charges could be reduced if a rate was struck over the whole country. PROFITS ILLEGAL The chairman said the public were entitled to all tbe information tho board could give them. Mr Hatheson: It should not he lonfj before we can make a reduction; that is the policy of tho board. The chairman said the board were prevented by law from making a profit. They did not have an easy, district—long and narrow, requiring more high-tension lines than other districts of the same size. There was every prospect of the scheme being a payable one, and of being able to make a reduction in the future.