The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1927. A PRACTICAL WAY

Southland Times, Issue 20219, 2 July 1927, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1927. A PRACTICAL WAY

The hardship of the non-reticulated ratepayers in the Southland Power Board's district cannot be questioned, but it is doubtful if any good can come to the Board or to the non-reticulated ratepayers by the prosecution of legal warfare. Speaking at Wyndham, Mr L. A. Niederer touched upon a few matters of peculiar interest to the Board’s ratepayers, urging that the financial, difficulties of the Board should be attacked by the concentration into the Board’s hands of the whole of the retail supply in the Province, and the intervention of the Government with a grant to meet the portion of the capital expenditure, such as the relief of the annual charges of a substantial sum that is now going out in interest. Neither proposal is going to be pushed through easily because both have to overcome heavily entrenched prejudice. Arguments can be produced to show that the Invercargill ratepayer would not be the loser if the Board took up the supply of electricity within the borough, but against all the arguments there will be raised the objection of putting the control of the town’s utility, already established and running at a profit, into the hands of a local body controlled by country members. We do not think there is anything to justify this fear, but its existence cannot be denied. Again, although the Government has spent millions in establishing hydro-electricity for other parts of the Dominion, and has spent nothing in Southland, the suggestion that there should be a straight-out grant of, say, £650,000, would raise storms of objection from every other part of the Dominion. The claim for financial assistance is a just one. The province hoped to carry through, and, if necessary, will carry through, the Monowai project, endorsed by the State at every step, without Government assistance, but in the circumstances, in view of the general trade conditions, relief is desirable, and if the Government took over the interest charges of, say, £650,000, the Board’s problems in regard to the rating would be simplified. These things, however desirable, do not touch the immediate problems of the non-reticulated ratepayers. Something else must be done. To-day these aggrieved ratepayers will meet to voice their protest against the failure of the Board to give them relief this year. That failure is due to the complexities in the work of definition required by the law to establish, not merely the exemption of the non-reticulated ratepayers, but also immunity against an attack on the whole of the rating of the Board.

This delay is brought about, not by a disregard of the non-reticulated ratepayer, but by the requirements of the legal circumstances created under the Act. Will stiffnecked opposition in the Courts do anything more than cost the non-reticulated ratepayers a substantial sum of money? We doubt if any good can come of any action along these lines. It would be much better to join hands with the Board in approaching the Government for a Commission to investigate the whole matter with the object of determining the best and the swiftest means of delivering the non-reticulated ratepayers from these hardships. Southland’s case is peculiar in the Dominion, and the difficulties of securing special legislation are manifest. The Commission having gone into the whole question could make recommendations which will afford to the nonreticulated ratepayer the relief he desires and is entitled to have. Its recommendations would carry a great deal of weight and, we think, would ensure the passage of special legislation to meet the situation that now exists. Headlong legal battles, while offering some satisfaction to those who desire a fight, will leave the nonreticulated ratepayer in the position that he is in to-day, but with a smaller banking account. We see no reason why the Board should object to a proposal along these lilies, in fact we think that the Board will welcome it, and we do not see how any of the municipalities could oppose solutions produced by a Commission which has investigated the whole matter. This is the course we suggest to-day’s meeting should adopt; it may not be so heroic as some already mentioned, but it is practical, and it offers more than passive resistance or legal warfare can gain.