A BIG DEAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16874, 11 February 1929, Page 7

A BIG DEAL

WAIPORI HEADWORKS PROPOSED PURCHASE, At a meeting of the Dunedin City Council the electric power and lighting committee was authorised to proceed with negotiations arising out of an offer which the Government has made ,to acquire by purchase the headworks of the Waipori hydro-electric power scheme. The Waipori undertaking, which is perhaps the best profit-earner among the city corpotibn's trading departments, has been an outstanding factor in the industrial progress of the city and surrounding districts, and the proposed transfer of the enterprise to Government control is, therefore, a matter of great importance to the whole of the reticulated afea. As negotiations are at present in progress, it is not possible to give any details of the proposed sale. It is stated, however, that one of the Government's alternative offers is to buy the Waipori headworks for a figure equal to what the city corporation has expended on them and sell the power in bulk to the city corpora- , tiOn at the same price as it is calcic lated it would have cost the corporation to develop that power itself. Thus, a change of ownership should not mean that consumers would have io pay the standard Government rates, ■which arO much higher than\ those current in Dunedin. In round figures the Waipori headworks have cost the corporation about £500,000, and there is a projected expenditure of another £2§0,000, so that a big deal is involved. It is the Government's policy to control ,the headworks of the hydroelectric systems of the Dominion, though there exists no legislative authority by which the- Government cduld acquire Waipori corapulsorily. With such control the linking-up of the different systems in each island would bo proceeded with.