£43,000 LOAN PROPOSED

Taranaki Daily News, 22 August 1931, Page 5

£43,000 LOAN PROPOSED

POWER FOR SOUTH TARANAKI EXTENSION IN “OUTER AREA.”. ENGINEER SUBMITS SCHEME. A step further towards the supply of power to what was formerly the outer area of the South Taranaki Power Board was taken last night when a draft loan proposal was submitted by the engineer. The suggested boundaries were approved and further consideration was postponed until the valuation rolls have been completed. \ The total loan for which sanction will be. asked is £43,000. Of this it was recommended that £lO,OOO be lifted in the first eight months, another £16,000 in Buch .sums as might be required, while the remaining £ll,OOO was for outlying districts, and the utilisation of this should only be made after serious consideration. The area included in the board's district, stated Mr. Overton, contained much backblock land which should be excludthe present scheme. He recomthat two lines be taken from the sub-station on Tawhiti Road, one along the Ohangai Road to Meremere, and the • other to Mokoia. One of the two lines from the sub-station to the Hawera borough would be taken to the South Road to connect with the Ohangai Mokoia line. From Mokoia onwards a heavy, line would be taken to Patea with lateral .lines where lequired. As some side-roads would not l offer payable results at once ho had taken out his estimates under two headings, the first for immediate attention with a percentage revenue to capital cost of 18.1 and the other for future construction, the percentage of revenue to cost being now ■only 10.2. Should the loan poll not be carried the Patea borough could .be supplied at Kakaramea, which would cost £4OOO. Mr. A. J. Gibbs considered the loan proposal should be put in .two sections. The people in his district (Alton) were \Against any loan at the present time snd might prevent the Hawera county settlers getting the power they desired. The chairman, Mr. J. B. Murdoch, said it would be more economical to have only one lean proposal. As the loan would not be raised until the settlers actually granted the power and until a profitable load was assured there should 'be no Objection to sanctioning the loan now.

y HOSPITAL POWER COST. SPECIAL TERMS MEAN LOSS. When the South' Taranaki Power Board took over from, the Hawera County Electric Company supply was continued to the Hawera hospital on the special terms then in existence. It has been discovered that this concession is useless to the hospital, which has been paying more than if it were on the ordinary local body rate. The power board agreed last night to charge the hospital board on the latter scale. The special hospital board rate is sjd per unit for light and 3Jd for both heating and power while local bodies generally are charged 6d for light, 3Jd for power and l|d for heating. It was estimated by a deputation which waited on the power board last night that the cost to the hospital of having its special rate was over 8s per day. The deputation also stated that the hospital electricity account had gone up tremendously in the past few years. The engineer, Mr. T. R. Overton, said the hospital meters had been checked and found accurate. Perhaps the additional heaters installed and the new wireless equipment, which was costly to operate, might cause the increase. Also he would not guarantee that there was no leakage in the wiring. Mr. J. S. McKay, chairman of the hospital board, said the heaters could not Affect the increase since the largest account had been in January and February. The power board gave the engineer permission to inspect the wiring of the hospital and make a report to the hospital board, 'which body is to bear the cost of the inspection.