ELECTRICITY SUPPLY.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4378, 15 January 1941, Page 4

ELECTRICITY SUPPLY.

IT could hardly have been anticipated by the designers of the great hydroelectric schemes in New Zealand that by 1941 the demand for power, in the North Island at any rate, would be perilously close to the limit of the immediate supply, as set out in an article in the Courier on Monday last The conclusion has been reached by those qualified to judge in such matters that power in the North Island is in short supply, and that rationing, which was a possibility last winter, is more than a probability during the winter of 1941. The reason is that the demand, which has been steadily increasing for the last decade through both extension and expansion in the use of electricity, is still mounting, while the supply from the hydro-stations has not kept pace with the demand. The Wellington

Evening Post quotes an illuminating point: that whereas a few years ago * Mangahao could supply the needs of the whole Wellington province, it is now unable to meet the requirements of the City of Wellington alone. The position, undoubtedly, is accentuated by the effect of the war. It had been planned to increase the hydro-electric output at both Arapuni and Waikaremoana, so that it would have been available this year, but the carrying out of these intentions was seriously hampered by delays in the delivery of machinery from Sweden and elsewhere in Europe. In time, no doubt, the new developments of water power, notably at Karapiro, will catch up

with the demand, but until then some

form of economy in the consumption of electricity seems unavoidable. It has been suggested that an extension of daylight saving to one hour in the

summer, with half an hour for the rest of the year, would substantially help to meet the difficulty. It is conceivable, however, that some people, particularly the farmers, would prefer rationing to that alternative.