THE SOUTHLAND REFERENDUM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22999, 30 September 1936, Page 8

THE SOUTHLAND REFERENDUM

The very considerable majority, nearly three to one, by which ratepayers in the Southland Electric Power Board area approved the transfer of the Monowai hydroelectric scheme to the State provides a satisfactory conclusion to a controversy that was conducted with great vigour. The ratepayers were provided with good and immediate reasons for welcoming the offer of the Government to accept full responsibility for the supply of electricity in the Southland district. Upon the Monowai undertaking there is a loan indebtedness of more than £2,000,000 in New Zealand currency, which now becomes the liability of the State. The board was faced with the need for an additional expenditure of £IOO,OOO in extending the capacity Of its generating plant by 5000 kilowatts, and for a similar expenditure the Government can connect the Southland system, as it proposes to do without delay, to the other systems already linked up in this island, with a very much greater extension of capacity. Furthermore, the transference of the Southland Power Board’s undertaking to the State will be attended by the abolition of power rates and meter rents, while the cost of power supplies will not only not be increased but a reduction in the charges will be made as the occasion warrants. The Power Board’s arguments for the retention of control of the Monowai system were, clearly, far from convincing to settlers, who have for years found the high charges weighing heavily on them, with no immediate prospect of relief. True, as the board insisted, the scheme is a going concern, and the State has certainly acquired a valuable business at the cost of taking over the liabilities attached to it. The development which has occurred in the Dominion in the provision of electric power and the results of the operations of the various systems give support to the view that the Monowai enterprise would eventually become selfsupporting in the best sense. The ratepayers, however, preferred to secure prompt relief from a heavy burden rather than rely on the promise by the Power Board of a cheaper supply of current at some far distant date. Theirs is, in all the circumstances, a practical decision, and there is some cause for satisfaction in the fact that it has been expressed so emphatically as to leave no room for doubt as to their mind on the matter. Significantly enough, the transference of control to the State was supported not less strongly in the towns than in the country.