RIVAL POWER BOARDS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1578, 25 November 1924, Page 5

RIVAL POWER BOARDS.

Sir,—l sent the accompanying letter to your contemporary, the Otorohanga Times, but the editor refused to publish same. May I crave the privilege of having it inserted in the Waipa Post.

In reading Mr Lorigan’s letter, which appeared in your issue of the sth of May, I ask for a small space in your paper for the benefit of local ratepayers to rectify some of the figures quoted. The loan indebtedness for Te Awamutu is shown by Mr Lorigan at £132,000, and revenue £9OOO, but the balance sheet for last year shows about £2OOO under, and the estimated revenue for this year is approximately £15,000. The proposed loan indebtedness for Te Kuiti or the Waite mo Power Board is £50,000, and estimated revenue £3439, but as the Te Kuiti plant has to be bought for approximately £28,000 it -leaves a balance of about £22,000 for reticulation for the rest of the district. It is not fair to say that the people of Otorohanga have elected to join up with Waitomo; that is where the shoe pinches. By sub rosa working and machinations a portion of the people here were persuaded to sign a petition to join up with Waitomo, but it soon became patient that a majority of those who thus signed had done so without appreciating the position, and to placate those who were out to get their pet Te Kuiti scheme into existence. I would suggest to let the Waitomo loan poll be 'taken and if it is not car-ried—-as I think will be the case — this district should at once apply to be put into the Te Awamutu area, letting the Te Kuiti supporters sweat in their own juice. It must not be overlooked that the people of Te Awamutu in the area reticulated are solid settlers and also that they have the goods, and after three years working know exactly their prospects and the probable increase of revenue, and have practically reticulated the whole of their district—l am, etc., PRO BONO PUBLICO.