ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 1, 24 August 1943, Page 5

ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY

SERIOUS OUTLOOK Attention to the unsatisfactory ■electric power supply was drawn by Mr AV. Su'llivan, M.P. for Bay of Plenty, during the discussion on the Estimates in the House, of Representatives. ' Mr Sullivan said that instead of collecting taxation in respect, of electric power supply, the Government should use any .surplus for the purpose of making power available to settlers in the outback districts. If further settlement was to be encouraged such facilities must ho provided. The Minister and the. Government must take responsibility for the disastrous, electric supply position. Power boards had made recommendations since 1938, but these recommendations had not been heeded. The recommendations of power board engineers had not been acted upon, and probably the same position obtained in connection with ■ the recommendations of departmental engineers. He said that in the past the Department had a policy of -closing down small supply units. In the Bay of. Plenty area, a local authority owning a small p'lant re•quired additional power -from the public Works Department, but before the power was made available the department insisted that, the small unit should be scrapped. Had the department taken the correct view, the small supply units would not have been closed, down. It was not of much use to endeavour to place responsibility, but it was very ■ desirable to iknow just exactly what steps were being taken to overcome the. difficulty. If it was going to take three or four years to get the ■extra power estimated to be required in the- 1 North Island, the position was going to be very-serious. A\ready most areas had been thrcat--ened that if the weekly consumption were not. brought down to a lierccntage. decrease consumption on last year the supp'.y might be cut off. Coastal towns, last year were observing almost an entire blackout. Mr Sullivan said he was anxious to know how soon it would be possible to build up the supply of Jjulk power.