ECONOMY AS AGAINST GUARANTEES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 224, 19 September 1944, Page 3

ECONOMY AS AGAINST GUARANTEES

COUNTRY ELECTRICITY USERS “If people want the board to compensate them for doing a national duty in an emergency things have come to a pretty pass,” said the secretary of the Wanganui-Rangitikei Electric-power Board, Mr. G. A. Ammundsen, at the monthly meeting of the board yesterday. The question arose wheif Mr. F. R. 11. Brice referred to the position of country consumers who guaranteed the board a yearly sum for the service, but who were now saving current in response to the appeal for economy. Mr. Brice said such consumers should be given some concession. Supporting Mr. Brice Mr. W. Morrison said that at one time everybody had been asked to put in all the electrical appliances they could, and rural consumers, who guaranteed the board a fixed yearly return, had done so to get the full value of their guarantee. Mr. Ammundsen said that one of the consumers mentioned by Mr. Brice guaranteed £ll 4s a year, and had used £8 12s worth of current during the past year. That meant he paid the board £2 12s above the value of current used, but it had to be remembered that the guarantees were fixed mainly to cover the capital cost of installing services in rural I areas. A case was quoted by Mr. L. J. Thompson where it was desired to extend electric power to a wool shed, and he asked whether the house and shed account could not be treated as one under the guarantee arrangement. The engineer, Mr. H. Webb, pointed out that in that case it would cost £l5O to put current into the wool shed and a separate guarantee would be required. “People are being asked not to waste current and it is not right that they should be compensated for doing so,” said Mr. B. R. Dobbs. ' "Guarantees are based on the capiItal cost of the lines,” said the chairman, Mr. F. Purnell. "This was originally 20 per cent, for five years only. Now it is 20 per cent, for that period and 15 per cent, thereafter.” Replying to a question, the engineer said that the average cost of maintenance of guaranteed lines was seven per cent a year. It was agreed that the engineer and secretary should prepare a general survey of the position regarding guaranteed accounts, and the amount of current being used by such consumers, and that the matter should be considered again at the next meeting of the board. The meeting was presided over by Mr. F. Purnell. Also present \fere Messrs. W. Morrison, R. G. Dalziell, H. C. Jenkins. F. R. H. Brice. S. R. McCallum, F. J. Gledhill, K. W. Dalrymple, L. J, Thomson. B. R. Dobbs and Hon. W. J. Rogers.