POPULARISING ELECTRICITY.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1638, 7 May 1925, Page 4

POPULARISING ELECTRICITY.

THE figures published from moiuh to month from, the reports submitted to the Te Awamutu Electric'Power Board by the inspectors make most interesting reading to those who are interested in the development of the hydro-elec-tric scheme for reticulating this district. Every month’s figures show an increase in the number of consumers and a corresponding increase in the revenue derivable therefrom by the 80-ard. At the last meeting in was shown that in the Te Awamutu Board’s district there are 941 lighting plants. 307 cow plants, 44 other power plants, 38 water pump motors, and 22 electric stoves —a grand total of 1352. These figures were made up as at 24th April, but the revenue for February was the latest available for comparison. The chairman of the finance committee showed the revenue for February (only a part reading, but approximately a full month, as the practice is to read a section of the meters one month and the balance the following month as £1537. This is a satisfactory increase upon the £976 for February, 1924. A little sum in mental arithmetic shows that, the revenue derivable from each electric point per month is slightly in(excess of £1 2s

6d. To get a,, more exact average it is necessary get the inspector’s 'February figures, -and these show a total of 1333 points. On that figuring ■the revenue per’point is £1 3s. The Power Board is encouraging residents in the district to make more general use of electricity 1 in the home and on the farm, but many people have not interested themselves sufficiently yet to grasp the opportunity.. A bill before us is interesting, for it refers to the electricity account in a local residence where .seven lights are in use, besides an electric iron 'for laundering and an electric ring or griller that is used considerably every day. The charge was for the period from 4th March to 27th April—nearly eight weeks—and the total was 19s ,5d net. Eleven units of lighting cost 7s 4d, and 79 units of heating cost lis Id. A fixed charge of Is has to be added. This represents an approximate weekly charge of 2s 6d. If any householder sets the weekly cost against the advantages of saving in labour and time and makes his comparison unfavourable to electricity then he is hard to please and does not consider his womenfolk, who are the greatest gainers by installing electricity in the home. The more users the more economically the service can be supplied. If it sems likely that the consumers may find that it is not possible for them to secure the benefits of electricity as cheaply as they would like, so much the greater stimulus should they have to support the Power Board’s efforts to popularise the use of electricity, for in that direction lies the prospect of securing sufficient revenue to obviate rating in order that the charges on a heavy capital expenditure may be met. The Te Awamutu Power Board’s very natural desire is that “ everyone will use electricity and balk electricity till the cows come home to be milked by electricity.” The dwellers in cities and boroughs, now thoroughly familiar with the advantages of electricity, would be aghast were they asked to revert to almost forgotten conditions. But although the extension of electrical development in New Zealand is striking, even at the present rate of progress a long time must elapse before it will be possible to say that electricity is in general use throughout the Dominion. Yet a country such as this, with its wealth of readilyavailable water power, is in a particularly favoured position for the realisation of such a project. It was mentioned in the last public works statement that the thirty-six power boards in existence cover an area of 57,876 square miles, or rather more than half the total area of New Zealand, upon which is found rather more than half the total population. Electricity as a handmaiden of the country’s progress and prosperity can evidently receive more attention than is being bestowed on it at present, with a view to results affecting the future. In a number of aspects the use of electricity in New Zealand, eveh among those to whom it is available, has as yet reached no advanced stage. “ Get our housework done by electricity ” was the theme of a lecture delivered recently in London by a lady who is herself a contracting electrical engineer. The domestic Elysium that is conjured up for housewives has something like a parallel in a recital of what electricity can do to lighten the burdens of the farmer.