TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays MONDAY, 27th MARCH, 1950 POWER SUPPLY AND CO-OPERATION

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 80, Issue 7181, 27 March 1950, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays MONDAY, 27th MARCH, 1950 POWER SUPPLY AND CO-OP-ERATION

CAN rat.'oning be avoided ? That is the question arising in the threatening shortage of the electricity supply and the warnings which those in authority are issuing. The gravity of the situation is admitted. Last week it was revealed that the water levels at Taupo and Waikaremoana were steadily falling instead of improving after recent rains, and so serious was the situation at Mangahao that the dams were only halt full. This condition at the headworks when coupled with the rise of demand, would appear to make inevitable some disciplinary regulation of demand, but both the Government and the supply authorities dislike the steps of enforcement which rationing entails, and experience has amply demonstrated that pre-determined shut-down hours are a harsh way of effecting economy. Nevertheless,, there would appear no alternative to some form of restraint. Last week it was announced that the North Island consumption was 6.17 per cent above the allocation, and this suggests the urgent need for the over-all consumption to be reduced. More recently the executive officers of the power boards, at a Waikato meeting, stressed the need to live within the allocations, and advised their boards to hold demand within the limits of supply as the only alternative to harsher disciplinary methods. It sums up to the direct and positive question; Can rationing be avoided ? Apparently it cannot; so what, then, is the method of control likely to woik least inconvenience in the factory. on the farm, and in the home ? Allowing that there is nothing new in the present situation, and that some people have come to regard these warnings with indifference, the fact of acute shortage against increasing demands must be acknowledged. The individual can do nothing to rectify the position at its source, but he can play an important part in ensuring that the limited supply is utilised wisely, for real necessity, and that wider interest is respected. In short, by voluntary co-operation, the whole community can effect the most sensible and least objectionable form of control. And that provides the answer to the worst feature of the question, and alone offers alternative to the dread prospect of compulsory rationing either by total prohibition of some uses or by the imposition of shut-down periods. It is possible and competent for every consumer to select and economise in his less essential uses. On an earlier occasion it was said that the avoidance of waste with hot-water installations would have made unnecessary the-harsh and extreme steps that the supply authorities were forced to take. Actually the thriftless, indifferent, and selfish user menaces the whole community—<is, indeed, a danger in this present emergency. The person who can but refuses to do voluntarily with a minimum of inconvenience what boards are forced to impose on everybody, with widespiAead disorganisation and discomfort, could be regarded as a poor citizen. It would be preferable—even to the limited extent an available inspection service allows for the boards to dis-connect supply entirely where it is apparent excess supply is being taken, and a policy announcement to that effect would not be illtimed. And it woud be very much in the public interest for cases of seeming abuse of demand to be reported promptly to the boards. Wjith an emergency the pubic cannot stiffer the careless, wanton, or selfish individual. In any case widespread economy should come as a result of the warnings so far given, for it is certain that the public can do voluntarily with much less inconvenience what seems most evident a duty which the boards will have to accept if voluntary co-operation fails.