RESTRICTION OF STREET LIGHTS CAUSES MUCH INCONVENIENCE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19241, 1 December 1930, Page 3

RESTRICTION OF STREET LIGHTS CAUSES MUCH INCONVENIENCE

Other Economy Steps Abandoned Following Rise In Coleridge Level.

THOUGH all other measures for econoijiy in the use of Lake Coleridge power were abandoned several weeks ago, the Electricity Committee of the City Council is still imposing a hardship on a section of the community by switching off the whole of the street lights after midnight. The reason for this action, it is stated, is that it is better to impose inconvenience on a small section of the public than to run the risk of jeopardising the supply during the critical period next winter.

The lake reached a level of 1660.10 ft on November 2, and, though that was still nearly twelve feet below the overflow level, tj)e officers of the Public Works Department considered that there was then a sufficient margin of safety to justify the withdrawal of most of the restrictions. Since then the level of the lake has been rising steadily, and on Sunday, November 23, it was 1661.65 ft. That represented a rise of eighteen and a half inches since the beginning of the month, and the position was very reassuring. Shop Window Displays. With the improvement in the position, all economy measures, other than the switching-off of the city street

lights after midnight, have been gradually withdrawn. Ordinary shop window display lighting has been fully restored ; even the Municipal Electricity Department’s showrooms are lit up in the evenings for purely advertising purposes. \ Yet, in spite of the relaxation of all general restrictions, the City Council still imposes inconvenience on those people who are in the streets after midnight. As a result of the switching off of the street lights at midnight a saving of approximately 320 kilowatts of power an hour is made for less than four hours. This means that the saving in the amount of water consumed at Lake Coleridge during that period is at the rate of about ten cusecs, a negligible quantity.;