The Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1919. ELECTRIC POWER BOARDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12712, 6 August 1919, Page 4

The Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1919. ELECTRIC POWER BOARDS.

The decision of the local bodies on Banks Peninsula to set up an Electric Power Board, under the Act of last session, has focussed interest in Christchurch on the possibility of a Canterbury Electric Power Board which would take over and develop the Lake Coleridge installation to its fullest capacity. It is doubtful, however, if the Government ever contemplated that the bigger installations would pass out of the hands of the State, and the Act of last session was intended to allow the smaller districts to develop hydro-electricity in cases where the- Government could not undertake the work. During the passage of the Act through Parliament it was pointed out that if it would pay local bodies to harness water power it would pay the Government to do so. Nevertheless, the Act is of the utmost importance to the industrial development of the country, especially at a time when public works are pawns in the game of politics, and grants are doled out to some extent regardless of the merits of the case. Canterbury is already suffering from Government dilatoriness in the matter of electrical extensions. The pipe line which is necessary to increase the capacity of the headworks at Lake Coleridge was ordered a couple of years ago, but the British authorities would not permit its export at the time, and since then the Government has been haggling over the increased price, although the increased sale of power consequent on the installation of the pipe line would have met the added cost over and over again. As long ago as 1911 the Government had a report on the electrification of Lyttelton tunnel,' hut the work seems as far from completion now as ever it Was, and there is a hint that even the Otira tunnel service is to be operated by steam locomotives, notwithstanding the complete reports prepared by Mr Evan Parry. Everywhere the demand for electrical energy is increasing, and the time is not far distant when Christchurch will have to look for an independent supply to duplicate Lake Coleridge and eliminate the costly stand-by plants which are necessary so long as the city is dependent on one source of supply. The old scheme for harnessing the Waimakariri has never been put out of courL and as it might be established in conjunction with a gravitation water supply for the city, there is a( prospect that an Electric Power Board might be formed for its development. Obviously the Government cannot adopt a dog-in-the-manger policy in regard to water power, and while there is much to be said for the State monopoly of this national asset, the Power Boards provide a useful means of bringing pressure on the Government where | power sources are ready to bo tarn**!