ELECTRICITY SUPPLY SCHEME.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 827, 4 October 1916, Page 6

ELECTRICITY SUPPLY SCHEME.

To (he Ediior of THE SUN. I Sir, —Being a busy man 1 have) .very little time for newspaper controversy, and i would have preferred meeting his Worship the Mayor or the chairman of the Electrical Committee on a public platform to dis- ■ cuss my reasons for not agreeing With the methods and various reports of carrying out the city's electrical installation. Aon, however, suggest in your leader that 1 should come out in the j open, and kindly offer me space in i your paper, which 1 willingly accept. I propose to put one or two ques-| lions at a time, as plainly as 1 can,i to the chairman of the Electrical i 'Committee, because he said to the I council he alone was responsible for] the report presented at the last meeting. I expect him to reply through! your columns, because any discus-1 sions in the council on this question l have invariably proved unsatisfac-j tory. After these questions have been! answered, they will prove that the! information given in regard to thej expenditure on this important ques-j tion has been most misleading.

No complete balance sheet for last; , | year's working has been before the I council, and there has been only a partial one in connection with the consumers' department since its in- , ception, yet it was reported over 18 I months ago that a loss had been! I made in this department of between: £3OO and £4OO, and the council and I public are utterly in the dark as to) | the financial results of an under-l i taking in which there is a capital of J over £200,000 involved. i Would any company or private ifirm allow over six months to elapse,! after the financial year had closed,! before a detailed balance sheet wasi j presented, showing clearly the true j position'? I Your readers may not understand J clearly at the first what these questions refer to, but when the answers i aregivenanda summary of the whole Iposition placed before them, it will! I be seen that my efforts to call atten-l lion to the methods adopted have! (been solely in the interests of the! j ratepayers. I have, from the outset, been a i i most ardent supporter of the Lake Coleridge scheme, and my criticisms! have been made with a desire to see! if a complete success, in accordance I with the contract made with the ! ratepayers who voted for the loan. J The actual kilowatt load supplied j by the Government to-day and sup- | piemen led by the department's steam ; plant and storage battery is, I say, j under 2000 kilowatts. (1) How, then, can you supply the 7800 kilowatt load which you re--1 ported as per the undermentioned ! copy, dated September 27, as being j the load on this date? j The following is an extract from j the late city engineer's (Mr J. C. j Scott's) report, which the chairman ! of the Electrical Committee quoted !as a comparison with the present load:— n<.vrn.,/>

For a 1000 k.w. supply, which will he required at once .. 120.814 10 0 For a 2000 k.w. supply, which will be required within 12 months from May, 1914 .. 32,090 0 0 For ii 3000 k.w. supply, which will he required within three years from May, 1914 .. .. 43,020 0 0 For a 4000 k.w. supply which will he required within live or seven years from May, 1014 54,042 10 0 EXTRACT FROM THE ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER COMMITTEES REPORT (September 27,

I The estimates made at the incepi lion of the scheme, which were considered exceedingly optimistic at the time, provided for a load of 4000 kilowatts, within from live to seven years, and for spreading the expenditure over this period. The load to-day, after 18 months' operation, is 7800 kilowatts. (2) If, as Mr J. G. Scott estimates, a load of 4000 kilowatts will produce a revenue of £54,042 per year, what, approximately, is the revenue from the load of 7800 kilowatts which you say you have at present? in the above report you say that, after 18 months' operation, the load is 7800 kilowatts, whereas Mr J. G. I Scott estimated for a load of 4000 j kilowatts only in five years' time, | and 1 venture to predict that in the | area for which Mr Scott based his ! calculations the load will not, even ! at the end of five years, be more I than his estimate of 4000 kilowatts. ! An attempt, no doubt, will be made Ito quibble between the totals !of consumers* connections and the i peak load, as per the letter of the Mayor, dated January 8, and replied jto by Mr J. G. Scott; but the com- ] miltee's report was a comparison of ! a load of 7800 kilowatts, with Mr J. iG. Scott's peak load of 4000 kilowatts. Since the present engineer's engagement, the reports presented to I the Public and the Committee have I been a series of bluff, and the following extract is only a sample:— "Lighting Consumers.—l beg to advise that we have lighting conI sumers, for whom, by virture of the I large load they have, we are exceeding our contract with the Government on the price we are charging! ! them, and by the end of the year it] I may be necessary to have an adjustment of nearly 2.") per cent. This amount cannot be determined, how-j jever, until we have had a full year's! I run, and I beg to have authority to; communicate to their manager that I I we will adjust the amount at the end' j of the year by a percentage in con-j formity with our contract with the i Government, and that it will be a discount of from 20 to 25 per cent." The engineer knew when he made this report it was not true, yet the Mayor and chairman allowed it to go through, although in committee I, challenged it in very strong terms. There is no condition in the contract with the Government restricting the price to be charged for lighting, and why should the Mayor, chairman, and engineer wish to single out this particular firm fori special favours? At the following council meeting'

an attempt was made to put me of! the commit tee. After the above are answered, 1 will follow on with the next question, which will bear upon street lighting, and later on 1 will refer to my objections to the conditions of the contract with the Government.— I am, etc., GEO. SCOTT. Christchurch, October 4.

After the war many problems will come up for solution. The New Zealand Express Co. can assist yon to solve iyour Customs problem. You simply hand them the document, and they clear j the goods without trouble to you, and 1 deliver them as well, and at once. 545 [ Don't let yonr children grow up withjout their being frequently photographed by Steffano Webu, 252 High Street, and mail their photographs away in time !to reach Home for Christmas. .2