POWER FAILS AGAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 690, 15 June 1929, Page 6

POWER FAILS AGAIN

THEATREGOERS LEAVE IN DARK FAULT SOON REMEDIED Another failure in the power supply shortly after ten o’clock last evening resulted in areas south of Newmarket and west of Queen Street being left in darkness for periods ranging from five to twenty minutes. When the failure occurred at 10.15 p.m. the programme had just finished at the Strand Picture Theatre, and the first few bars of the National Anthem had been played. Everything was dark till torches, and matches struck by the audience, came to the rescue. The crowd commenced to file out in the gloom, and the last to leave were just descending the stairs when the lights came on again. Most of the picture theatres had already closed by that hour, and it was only in His Majesty’s Theatre that much inconvenience was felt. When the lights failed the attendants rushed on the stage with hand torches, but they proved a poor substitute. The power came on again five minutes later. The chief engineer of the Auckland Electric Power Board stated this morning that the failure in the power was due to the breaking down of a 22,000-volt insulator on the main transforming bank at the Penrose substation. The Penrose breakdown caused a stoppage in the Arapuni supply, and this in turn resulted in overloading at the King’s Wharf power station. It was about five minutes before sufficient steam was available to carry the load. The Arapuni supply was suspended for about half an hour.