ELECTRIC POWER FOR TARANAKI.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 85, 15 August 1923, Page 7

ELECTRIC POWER FOR TARANAKI.

(To the Editor, "Stratford Evening Post.") Sir,—The Taranaki Power Board so far has had a rosy path to tread, and I sincerely hope that the scheme they have in hand will b; successful, which will mean a blessing to the whole of Taranaki, but any bungling on the part of the board will prove a curse to the districts concerned in the shape of indebtedness that may take years to put straight. What the board has to realise is that it has been given great powers under the Act (which I claim needs amending), whereby on a twenty-five per cent, signatory basis the board was first set up, and later was empowered to borrow up 10 £350,000 and strike a rate on a minority vote of those vitally interested in the matter, and in casting votes, a ratepayer, payiug only a nominal sum in rate?, had as effective a vote as a vote of those paying large sums in rates. Of course I will be met with the argument that those interested should have seen to it that their vote 3 were recorded, but it is a face that quite a number did not vote under the impression that the poll would not bo carried on a minority vote. However, this is by the way: The poll for borrowing £350,000 was carried according to law as it stands, but what I want to emphasise is that the board must realise that it has a grave responsibility in see.ng that every safeguard is taken step by step to ensure success, otherwise the board will be compelled to call up the rate in whole or in part. I have been induced to pen these lines mainly because I believe that the •board is too sanguine of the power that will be applied for in the 1 immediate future, and also for; the reason that the board appears to be working on the definite assumption that the scheme will be completed with:n the estimate. Outside Dunedin, which competed its scheme a good many years ago when labour "•••»'; cheap, and the scheme did not present any engineering difficulties, I do not know of any hydro works that have been completed in the Dominion, within the estimated cost. In conclusion, I wish to make it . quite clear that I am not in any way j condemning or antagonistic to the j scheme, but I do most strongly ad~ viso the greatest cauton as the work progresses.—l am, etc., W. P. KIRKWOOD. Stratford, August 13.