BULK POWER SUPPLY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 150, 28 June 1943, Page 6

BULK POWER SUPPLY

SOUTH ISLAND CONCERNED (P.A.) Christchurch, June 24. Considerable apprehension at the prospective serious shortage of power in the South Island was expressed in a resolution adopted by a regional conference of all members of the NewZealand Electric Power Boards and Supply Authorities’ Association in the South Island, held in Christchurch yesterday. The conference appointed a committee of 10 members, representing power boards and supply authorities, to review the power situation in general, and to formulate proposals for obviating difficulties confronting the industry. The committee will co-operate with two similar committees in the North Island. Administrative control of the supplying of power was the subject of another resolution passed by the conference. It was stated that the conference strongly re-affirmed the recommendation made in the 1935 bulksupply report that administrative control of the generation of electricpower supply should be so adjusted that suply authorities, as partners in the industry, should be given a definite status in regard to decisions affecting all policy matters and plant installations for ‘future supply. The conference, which was arranged by the association, was opened by the Mayor of Christchurch, Mr. E. H. Andrew’s. The Deputy-Mayor, Mr. M. E. Lyons, presided at discussions which lasted all day. Among the subjects discussed were the power supply position, now and after the war. plans for re-habilitating the indsutry and the part that electricity will play in the general scheme of post-war rehabilitation. The reticulation of sparsely-settled areas was also discussed. A lengthy report reviewing the growth of the shortage of bulk electricity supplies in New’’ Zealand, th;? extent of the shortage in the North and South Islands, prospects for the future, and the effects on national rehabilitation were also discussed by the conference. A report stated that the general margin of safety jn the South Island was larger than in the North Island, but the basic causes which had brought about the North Island’s difficulties applied with equal force and would, if not corrected, introduce the same conditions.