QUOTA ADVOCATED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 29, 3 May 1950, Page 4

QUOTA ADVOCATED

Sir, —In case misunderstanding may have arisen concerning the attitude of the Whakatane Citizens’ Association towards the question of power cuts and because there is evidence that confusion has been caused by statements claimed to have been made by responsible officials of the Council, I would like to reiterate the viewpoint of my organisation.

First of all we are definitely opposed to any percentage reduction on previous consumption because this would place a penalty on the households which in the past have saved power without causing any grave inconvenience in households where power has been used freely. My' organisation advocates a quota arrangement in which the number of power units allocated to each consumer is based upon the number of people in the household and the nature of the essential appliances which are in use.. My association has sent out a questionnaire to a cross section of residents and we desire that there shall be no misunderstandings whatsoever. Power will- have to be conserved and some consumers may be allocated less power than they now use even with the present blackouts.

However, we anticipate that the authorities will take the people completely into their confidence and issue official statements showing exactly the number of units that are available for each class of household and industry, and they may even issue day to day reports on consumption. If this is done we feel that residents will co-operate fully and assist the Borough Council in every way to conserve power. At present we know that power is being wasted by people who in the blackout periods leave switches on accidentally and find that lights have burned all night and again by other consumers who have become exasperated by rumour and counter rumour and frequent cuts and just use all the’ current they feel like when the power is on. Yours etc., J. H. MAWKES,

Hon. Secretary, Whakatane Citi-

zens’ Association Whakatane, May 2 .