Electric Power.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1585, 13 December 1924, Page 9 (Supplement)

Electric Power.

AN ECONOMY AND A NECESSITY.

The present has been referred to as the electrical age, and it cannot toe gainsaid that there is a truth in the appellation. The advent of electricity from Hora Hora has been a great boon to this district, and the power is very widely used. Every month the Te Awamutu Electric Power Board records a greater increase in the number of users of electricity in all parts of the district. The Board controls an area of about three hundred square miles, which includes the borough of Te Awamutu, the townships of Kibikihi, Ohaupo, and Pirongia, the bigger part of the county of Waipa, and a portion of the county of Otorohanga. In 1920 a poll for authoritty to raise a loan of £120,000 was carried without opposition, and in August, 1921—little more than three years ago—the town of Te Awamutu was electrically lighted for the first time. Kihikihi received the current during the following month, Pirongia in December, and Ohaupo a few months later. In addition to the towns mentioned, the lines of the Board extend for many miles into the country, and a large number of farmers were soon using the power for milking machines and other farm appliances. Since that day the progress of the Board has never halted. Other farmers, encouraged by the success of the pioneers, were induced to link their milking sheds with the electrical power, and now it is almost the exception to find a farm that is not so equipped. Water heaters have been installed in many sheds, motor pumps have been applied to the job of pumping water that was formerly obtained by wind-mills, milking sheds and farm houses are lighted by electricity, stoves, rings, and irons—all electrically operated—have been installed in homes and homesteads, large and small, in all parts of the district. The town of Te Awamutu is itself one of the best — perhaps the best—lighted towns of its size in the whole of New Zealand. There are a total of 81 street lights in the borough, and by this means every thoroughfare in Te Awamutu, from eastern boundary to western boundary, and from north to south, is adequately lighted right throughout the night. Plans were in progress for extending the reticulation to the Otorohanga district, but a few months ago steps were taken at Te Kuiti to create the Waitomo Electric Power Board, and arrangements have been made by which the new board will be able to reticulate the Otorohanga township and neighbourhood, with the 'exception of the area to the northward, Kio Kio, which remains in the Te Awamutu Board's territory. The latter board has during the past few weeks extended its main line to a point in the vicinity of Kio Kio, and within the next few weeks a great percentage of the farmers in that district will have their homes and milking sheds supplied with this economical and convenient power. One sometimes wonders, when viewing the many conveniences of the home and the farm, how progress was made before the advent of electricity in this district; and were it possible that the service was suddenly discontinued there would be dismal waitings at the catastrophe. It is only those who have used electricity in the home md on the farm who can fully realise its great worth. Farming—and particularly dairying conditions have been revolutionised by electricity. Prices for installation and continuous supply have been reduced from time to time, and it is predicted by those in close touch with the enterprise that there will he further reductions in the not far-distant future, as a result of the linking 1 with Arapuni, that wonderful source of electrical energy that is now being harnessed.