POWER FOR OPUNAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1926, Page 6

POWER FOR OPUNAKE.

MEETING OF THE BOARD. i ’ ’ ' THE ENGINEER’S REPORT. The monthly’ meeting of the Opunake Electric Power Board was held at the board’s office, Opunake, yesterday, when there were present: Messrs. C. A. Trotter (chairman), G. Goodwin, J. P. Burton, J. S. Tosland, E. A. Collins and J. Hickey junr. The engineer (Mr. C. M. StowersCrowley) reported as follows: Construction.—During the month a small amount of construction work has been carried out in the Warea and Puniho sections. A secondary line has been erected on the Lower Puniho road for a distance of half a mile. A further one and three-quarter miles of line has been wired on the Warea Road. I hope to have the transformers erected at once so as to enable this section of line to be livened up. With the exception of completing a few services, I do not propose doing any more work in the Warea and Puniho sections until the wiring of the twin circuit is completed. Consumers. —Nine new consumers have been linked up to the supply and new applications are coming in steadily. The I transformer supplying the stone crushing plant has been removed to the Elm Road and the plant is again ope.r-1 ating. ! General.—Owing to very severe floods in the early part of the month a large quantity of shingle was deposited in the head race and a good deal of the bank was washed away. It was necessary to construct a stone retaining wall for a distance of one chain, commencing from the end of the first conduit. Alterations have been made to the power lines on the Iliaia and Eltham Road railway crossings. Power-house.—The plant has been operating continuously and maintenance has been normal. A start has been made to overhaul the turbines, and the broken gate wheel is being repaired. Replying to Cr. Tosland, the engineer stated that the bulk of the new consumers were from the Warea-Puniho district. They were arranging so that later on when power was secured from New Plymouth the area between Pungarehu and Puniho could be switched off the Opunake power and directly on to New Plymouth. They had applications for two stoves, and he expected six more applications almost immediately. With a farming community there was a danger of the stoves being used at the same time as the milking motors, thus creating an undesirable peak load. It was desirable therefore that they should delay as far as possible the installation of stoves until heavier copper wire had been installed to carry the load. The engineer stated that by next I season they expected to have 200 milking motors in operation. Cr. Tosland thought they should not give permission for additional stoves un-

til they had definitely signed up with New Plymouth. The board’s first liability was to its ratepayers. The engineer pointed out that in the town the installation of stoves would provide a desirable diversity of load. Members stated that the board was safeguarded by flip proviso that the power for stoves could be cut off when there was a shortage of power. It was finally decided to grant tlrJ applications for the stoves, subject to the distinct understanding on the lines stated. Some discussion took place over the question of shingle and sand coming down during flood time, and suggestions were made as to overcoming the difficulty. The report was adopted. GENERAL. The Opunake Tow-n Board applied for a rebate on its street lighting during March, when all the lights were out of action for about half the. month. The chairman said that the town of Opunake had nothing to complain of, as they were getting their street lighting at a very cheap rate. The engineer considered that the public of Opunake had not been inconvenienced in any way, as it was moonlight at the time. After some discussion it was resolved to make a rebate of £3 3s to the Town Board, the rebate to he without prejudice and not to be taken as a precedent The chairman’s honorarium was fixed at the same as last year, viz., £lOO per annum, and the allowances for members was also fixed at £2l Is, the same as the last year. The financial statement showed that the loan account was in credit £1196 4s 7d, and the fund account in credit £ll2 0s lid.