NO INCREASE IN BOROUGH POWER ALLOCATION, BUT ARBITRARY CUTS TO BE REMOVED AS EXPERIMENT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 18, 29 July 1949, Page 5

NO INCREASE IN BOROUGH POWER ALLOCATION, BUT ARBITRARY CUTS TO BE REMOVED A S EXPERIMENT

A letter, signed by the Mayor, Mr B. S. Barry, which is to be circulated to all electricity consumers in the Borough, says restrictions will be discontinued temporarily, but consumers must conserve power in other ways or face re-imposition of the cuts. ‘

Mr Barry’s letter follows: — . “The which recently interviewed the Controller in Wellington was not successful in obtaining an increased allocation of electricity. “The Controller pointed out that all the arguments advanced by the deputation such as increase of population, number of new houses, phenomenal growth of the Borough, etc., had already been strongly represented by the Borough Council vAjen making applications for increased allocation on previous occasions ' and had been taken into -account in fixing the allocation. Others’ Claims As Good “He further stated that 17 other Supply Authorities or approximately 50 per cent of the Supply Authorities in the North -Island had as

good, or better cases, 'than Whakatane, for an increased allocation. That, if he granted an increase to one, he would have to grant it to all and that he did not have the necessary amount of electricity to do so.

“The Council is still not satisfied, and will shortly be asking you for ■certain information by means of a questionnaire to enable it to collect new data to back up further representations. “The deputation confirmed that practically all other Supply Authorities have been forced to apply restrictions of one sort of another, although these may not be apparent to the casual visitor to the district. consumer s’ Co-operation Sought 1 “As a result of the recent cooperation of the consumers and hav-

ing regard to the approach of longer hnurs of daylight, the Council has " 'decided to institute a trial to ascertain whether the present restrictions can be removed. 9 These restrictions will he temporarily discontinued and the consumers are asked to conserve the power in other ways.

“We are still in excess of our allocation and the consumption must not be increased. The same number of units, and if possible more, must be saved in.other ways, and this can only be done by the wholehearted co-operation of all consumers. “In effect, the Council is removing the arbitrary restrictions and leaving it to the individual consumer to save the same amount of power by other means. Figures as a Guide “As a guide, an all-electric house

should not use more than 200 units ,a month, and a house using electricity for light only, not more than .50 units. These figures do not include hot water heating, but include all incidentals such as radios, toasters, jugs, etc. “The majority of consumers will be well below these figures which are the maximum. number of units which should be used where, owing to circumstances, such as a large family, a number of young children, etc., the consumption is above the average. Under no circumstan- • ces should your consumption be above these figures. “All Commercial Users must reduce their monthly consumption per cent below the coni sumption for the correspondingmonth last year. This is imperative. “We are offering you this as an alternative to the present restrictions. If the saving cannot be effected by the co-operation and selfrationing of the individual consumer then the present restrictions must be re-imposed.”'

Though the Borough Council’s deputation to Wellington was unable, to obtain an increased allocation of electricity, the Council has decicpd to institute a trial to ascertain whether present restrictions can be removed.