LAKE COLERIDGE POWER

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16798, 31 March 1919, Page 2

LAKE COLERIDGE POWER

To the Editor of the "Timaru Hera 1 d "| Sir, —1 read in : tho paper tnat the! Government Electrical Engineer states that \\ annate is outside an economical supply from. Lake Coleridge, and it is my opin.on that in the event, of thi-* scheme reaching Timaru, as is proposed, nearly all the farmers and small industries on the route will find that they are also outside the economical supply, and the talk of giving electncity to every farmer and home here, there and everywhere is only a fanvtale and political vote-catch. It is quite* time the farmers took the matter in hand and found out the real truth as t«j whether they will get electricity supplied them on Hheir | farms from this scheme. As to whether i Timaru and Temuka should gat eleo-j tr-city from Lake Coleridge, it is of I very little consequence, and would not' warrant the vast expenditure which everyone would have to help pay for, while only the towns would benefit. Electricity on the farm is the great boon, and if it is practical to distribute to the farms even at a fa'rly high rate, every farmer and citizen should make a great fuss until it is a fact accomplished. We can looft at the matter from another angle. Suppose that it is practicable to distribute almost indiscriminately as sonic of the advocates assume. Then our best plan would'be to start from Lake Tekapo and develop the surrounding country, and supply Waimatie and Oamaru. I will not say more, as I could fill the whole column of your paper writing of the possibilities of the proposition if practicable. It is mine as well as others' candid opinion, that the whole proposition is brought forward for political reasons, like nearly all the railways that have been started and left unfinished. .We want progressivene?s and development!, but s'imply to talk of imoracticable schemes is only humbug.—l am, etc.. J. G. ANDREWS.. 1 Temuka, ■.;.;."