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1904. NEW ZEALAND.

WAIPORI FALLS ELECTRICAL POWER BILL COMMITTEE (REPORT OF THE); TOGETHER WITH MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. (Mr. W. FRASER, Chairman.)

Report and Evidence brought up 22nd September, and ordered to be printed 27th September, 1904.

REPOBT. Your Committee have the honour to report: — They find the allegations of the preamble proved to their satisfaction. They have carefully considered the several clauses of the Bill, and have made the following amendments therein: — Clause S. —They have struck out the words giving the company power to execute necessary works, and have repeated those words in a new clause (3b). They have added a proviso prohibiting the company from supplying energy for lighting or domestic heating within the City of Dunedin without the consent of the Corporation first obtained; but this prohibition is not to apply to cases where the company is supplying a certain amount of energy for industrial purposes. They have added two new clauses —viz., 3a —providing for the establishment of a Board of Control; and 3b, giving power to the company to execute necessary works, subject to such regulations as may be agreed upon between the company and the local authorities concerned, with power to the company to appeal to the Board of Control against any oppressive conditions imposed by a local authority. Clause 6. —They have added a new proviso, making, in certain cases, the Supreme Court sitting at Dunedin the Compensation Court for the purposes of the Bill. Clause 7. —In view of the provisions of section sixty-eight of " The Public Works Act, 1894," they have omitted this clause as unnecessary. Clause 8. —They have added a provision that the draft of any by-laws proposed to be made by the company shall be forwarded to the local authorities concerned. Clause 10. —They have struck out a portion of the clause, so as to restrict the operations of the company to the area of supply as described in the Bill. They have added a new clause —11a —imposing penalties on the company in case it fails to comply with the provisions of the Bill, or with any requirement of the Board of Control. They have added at the end of the Bill the following new clauses: — 13. Giving the company power to assign its undertaking. 14 Giving the Corporation of the City of Dunedin power to purchase the company's undertaking within a certain time and on certain conditions. 15. Saving to the local authorities concerned the right to agree with any other company or person for the supply of energy, or to supply the same themselves. W. Fbaseb, Thursday, the 22nd day of September, 1904. Chairman. Note.—Por reprint of Bill showing the above amendments, vide No. 2-2 (Private), 1904.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. Thuesday, 18th August, 1904. Peter Duncan examined. (No. 1.) 1. Dr. Findlay. You are connected with the company referred to in this Bill? —Yes. 2. What connection have you with the company? —I am solicitor to the company. 3. How long has the company been in existence? —Since September or November, 1902. 4. What rights in connection with the Waipori Falls has the company acquired? —The company holds the right to 130 Government heads of water in the Waipori River. 5. How far is that from Dunedin? —I understand it is about twenty-six miles from Dunedin — that is, to the falls. 6. And in what county? —The County of Tuapeka. 7. What is the term of the license held by the company? —The license held by the company consists of one, granted originally in the name of John Lawson, dated May, 1900. 8. For what term? —Forty-two years, under the Mining Act of 1898, for eighty heads, and another right to fifty heads, originally granted to Alfred Henry Inder for forty-two years from September, 1900. 9. Those are all the rights you hold? —Yes, except the mining rights over a tributary for sawmilling purposes, a right on Shepherd's Creek for a few heads of water which the company uses for power on their sawmilling plant, which has now been in use since 1901. 10. The company under these licenses was compelled to do certain work, was it not? —That is so. Under the Mining Act, under which Act the licenses were granted, it is absolutely necessary that the holders of licenses must at once commence operations, and having commenced them must βontinμe operations without intermission.