RETICULATION POLICY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 77, Issue 6566, 15 September 1948, Page 7

RETICULATION POLICY

TE AWAMUTU ELECTRIC POWER BOARD “NO DEPARTURE FROM ORDER OF PRIORITY” A deputation i epresenting residents on Te Tahi Road, Pirongia, waited on members of the Te. Awamutu Electric Power Board, at their meeting on Tuesday, to seek expedition of reticulation in that area. Petitioners stated in a letter to the board, which vias considered piior to the hearing of the deputation, that they recognised the fact of the Kawhia extension being the board’s No. 1 piiority job following the.war, but on completion of the Kawhia line they had been disappointed that the work of reticulating side-roads had proceeded from the Kawhia instead of the Te Awamutu end of the extension. Less populous areas whose applications were not as long standing as the Te. Tahi Road residents’ were thus receiving light and power first. In receiving the deputation, Mr J. T. Johnson, chairman of the board, commented that the problem exercising their minds was whether they retained the.ir place in the priority of loads to be reticulated, or whether their claims had been shelved and forgotten. The position was that for 12 months or more the board had worked to a priority system without deviation, and the Te Tahi Road project was on the schedule for reticulation as soon as possible. With regard to the board’s policy of working from Kawhia back to Te Awamutu, said the chairman, there were sound reasons for so doing. The Te Tahi residents had only two other areas ahead of them in order of priority, namely, Stock Road (i mile), and Mangaiti Road (3 miles). “We canffot say definitely when a start will be made on the reticulation of Te Tahi Road, as we are governed by the availability of supplies, particularly steel and high and low tension insulator pins,” said Mr Johnson; adding that there was also a shortage of cross-arm timber which had held up progress. “We will expedite the work as fast as we can, but there will be no departure from the order of priority on the board’s schedule,” stated the chairman.

A member of the deputation said that they were not questioning the board’s policy of carrying out the leticulation programme from the Kawhia end of the extension. Tn answer'to a question from a deputy, the secretary-manager, Mr M. Barnett, explained that in the event of the area being affected by power cuts, their obligations under the guarantees would be held in abeyance until full power supply was available. The deputation told board members that residents of Te Tahi Road would co-operate fully with the. board in hastening reticulation. B A lettei from the secretary of Honikiwi branch. Federated Farmers, was referred to by the secretary-manager, who told members that in reply to a request from Honikiwi that the board receive a deputation from that district regarding the supply of power thereto, he had advised that the question of power supply to Honikiwi district was .tied up with the shortage of materials and labour and that, the board had a list of work arranged in order of application from which they had decided there could be no deviation in priority. The Honikiwi district had already been placed on the. list for reticulation, but there were about seven applications ahead of it. The board had set in motion prepara- • ticns for the raising of the necessary loans for the work, but no date- could be. given for the commencrtnent of reticulation. Mr Barnett said he had informed the correspondent that the board would receive a deputation from Honikiwi, but he did not think they would obtain any more information than that w’hich he had made available. He had later received a reply to the effect that the deputation would not be waiting on the board, and he assumed that they had accepted the facts of the situation.