Supply Authorities Warned

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31005, 10 March 1966, Page 3

Supply Authorities Warned

(N.Z. Press Association) GISBORNE, Mar. 9

The Minister of Electricity (Mr Shand) this afternoon warned New Zealand power supply authorities that unless they resolved their differences in spirit of compromise, it was inevitable, that sooner or later the matter would be taken out of their hands by Parliament.

The Minister was speaking at the official opening of the Poverty Bay Power Board’s new office block. Mr Shand said it would be remarkable if the pattern laid down by early legislators more than 40 years ago was not now cracking at the seams. “For 20 years, there have been growing pressures to revise the system, particularly

to facilitate the amalgamation of power supplied areas where amalgamation would be in the interest of economy, and therefore the consumers, and to remove a sense of grievance in the minds of urban authorities who contend that some of the restrictions on them are no longer logical,” said Mr Shand. Mr Shand said that like his predecessors, he had taken the view that as the retail reticulation of electricity was in the hands of local government, neither the Minister nor the Electricity Department should attempt to force amendments on the industry. “But unless the industry can resolve its differences and agree on amendments and compromise solutions, they are likely to be forced upon it by other means, and they are not likely to be logical or sensible amendments when seen from the point of view of the whole industry,” he said.

“Parliament has already dealt with one application—from Wanganui—for a special act of Parliament in which one local body sought advantage at the expense of another,” he said. “In the coming session 1

have already received notice of two such bills, and I cannot predict with any certainty the attitude Parliament will adopt.

“It will be a great pity if the law is amended in piecemeal fashion,” he said.

Mr Shand said he had spent a great deal of time examining proposals for the amendments of the law which may

result in removing at least the worst of the anomalies in an equitable fashion. “In the last year 1 have had the full co-operation of the executive of the Supply Authorities’ Association,” he said. “1 hope our efforts will not be stultified by the prejudices of individual members, whether they be power boards or municipal supply authorities.”