LAKE COLERIDGE CONTRACT.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18365, 24 April 1925, Page 18

LAKE COLERIDGE CONTRACT.

SUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATIONS.

CITIZENS' APPRECIATION. A movement is afoot to record the thanks of the citizens to the gentlemen primarily responsible for the successful completion of the Lake Coleridge supply contract, whereby the City will receive a progressively increasing bulk of power annually during the next twelve years at'rates very much more favourable than tho standard rates which would have been imposed had the negotiations not resulted so well.

The gentlemen so entitled to the credit are the Mayor of Christchurch, Mr J. A. Elesher, the chairman of the Electricity Committee, Councillor A. McKcllar, and the general manager of the Municipal Electricity Department, Mr E. Hitchcock. Theso three have worked indefatigably for over eighteen months to secure the best terms and conditions possible for the City. Mr Elesher's professional knowledge and experience were exercised to the full on many occasions when the broad policy lines relating to the contract, and the implications in issue, were under negotiation with the Minister of Public Works. Councillor McKellar gave freely of his time and large commercial experience in pressing the claims of the City to power supply rights as nearly as possible equivalent to those possible had the Waimakariri scheme been authorised by the Government, and Mr Hitchcock, with his comprehensive technical knowledge, ,has been a tower of strength throughout and has, on many occasions, acted as the representative of the Council in tho conduct of tho technical negotiations with the experts from the Public Works Department, who were acting on behalf of the Minister. The utmost care has been taken to safeguard in every way the interests of the City, and as far "as it is possible to foresee, there will be no occasion during the currency of the contract to increase the retail rates at present in operation.

The bulk charges imposed by the Government arc based on the Waimakariri estimates from year to year, a3 already detailed by the Minister. The contract was. signed yesterday on behalf of the City Council by the Mayor and the Town Clerk, and has been forwarded to the Minister of Public Works for execution by the representatives of the Government.

The terms of the contract, which arc almost entirely of a most technical nature, will not .be available for publication until the Minister of Public Works has given his consent.