EARLY PAYMENT EXPECTED

Southland Times, Issue 23795, 18 April 1939, Page 8

EARLY PAYMENT EXPECTED

GORE ELECTRICITY REFUNDS ■I, —■ / ABOUT £6OOO TO BE DISTRIBUTED The payment of refunds totalling nearly £6OOO will probably be made shortly to electricity consumers at Gore in return of a portion of overcharges levied between 1932 and 1936. About 1500 consumers are eligible to receive the refunds and nearly all have made application to the Southland Electric Power Supply Authority. Under the arrangement recently made between the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) and the Gore Borough Council, consumers agreed to accept 75 per cent, of the amount overcharged in full settlement of their claims. It was announced by the Minister that application for the refunds must be made by March 31 and by that date nearly all the consumers had applied. Of the 1500 who will benefit from the refund, between 300 and 400 are now resident in other parts of New Zealand. The impression was gained from statements made at meetings of the Gore Borough Council that only consumers still resident in Gore would receive repayment, but officials of the department state that all who were consumers within the period of the overcharge are eligible for refunds provided that they made application to the department before the end of last month. Authority for the repayment will need to be taken in Parliament, but the Cabinet has already authorized payment of the refunds and it is expected, that the money will be paid to consumers almost immediately instead of waiting until Parliament meets in June. The details of the form of release to be given to the department by consumers have yet to be settled. The amount to be collected by each consumer is not big, the overcharge being one penny a unit for the first 42 units used in each two-monthly reading of meters. Some consumers did not use this quantity of electricity-and their refunds will be reduced accordingly, while bigger consumers had the advantage of a reduced rate on all excess power used. The rates levied on Gore consumers became an overcharge when in 1932 the Southland Electric Power Board took over the supply of power in the Mataura borough and levied a lower maximum rate on Mataura consumers, an earlier agreement with the Gore Borough Council providing that consumers in that borough should have the advantage of any reduced charges in other districts.