HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22833, 18 March 1936, Page 8

HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

THE GOVERNMENT’S OBJECTIVE NATIONALISATION OF UNDERTAKINGS - # (From Our Special Reporter) INVERCARGILL, March 17. The ultimate nationalisation of electric supply undertakings in New Zealand is the aim of the Government, according to the Minister of Public Works, Mr R. Semple, who spoke on the subject at tbs conference which he and the Minister of Finance, Mr W. Nash, had with members of the Southland Electric Power Board to-day. Mr Semple’s remarks were made after the board’s decision to reject the Government’s offer to take over the scheme and sell the .power to the board had been made known to the Minsters. “ I am exceedingly sorry that the hoard has not accepted one of the two proposals, both of which, in my own view, were very liberal,” said Mr Semple. “ These offers cannot he made again. We have these troubles all over New Zealand, and we are determined to put electrical undertakings in this country on a sound footing. -We have £14,000,000 of the people’s money invested in them, and that cannot be endangered. Yet efforts are frequently made by local bodies and others to undermine State enterprises, and there is ruinous and unnecessary competition, in several areas, with people paying twice for the same service offered by competing interests. Of this we do not approve. It is wasteful and uneconomic. There is needless duplication, ruinous overhead wastage, and a constant overlapping. We shall , Lave ultimately to consider taking over the whole supply of electric energy and managing it on a national basis with the double purpose of protecting the money invested -by the people in their own State undertakings and reducing the charges for current- so that the poorest may have the use of it. That is our ultimate aim, and I am satisfied that we cannot achieve it under the' present system in process. Your scheme' must sooner or later come in with the rest. You will not again have an offer such as we are making to-day, and its acceptance must work out to the advantage of the consumers in this locality. This problem of nationalisation is one which must be tackled some day to save people , from themselves. No Government could allow such suicidal tactics as those at present adopted to continue without an effort to make an improvement, and this Government will make that effort—to rationalise distribution and cut down costs. I cannot see any way to do this except by making the supply and the sale of electricity a national monopoly. It will take time —a number of years—and we may not complete it, but we shall make a start.”