LAKE COLERIDGE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 68, 17 September 1930, Page 13

LAKE COLERIDGE

THE RAIN CEASES

POSITION STILL ACUTE

(By Telegraph.—Preas Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, 16th Sept,

There has been no more rain in the Lake Coleridge catchment area and to-day there was no appreciable rise in the lake level. Owing to the rain the previous day, however, the water level has risen very slightly.

Economies are still being maintained. Steam trains are to be run on the Lyttelton line, but not through tho tunnel.

A further appeal is being made to shopkeepers to close- on Friday evenings. A conference was hold to-day between representatives of the authorities distributing power from Lake Coleridge and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and tho Manufacturers' Association. The most important result of tho conference was the setting up of a committee which will confer regularly with the Public Works Department and indicate to the supply "authorities what economies are necessary. This committee's duty will be to ensure that economies shall be uniformly observed over the whole area.

At the conference the Government engineer (Mr. Mac Gibbon) said the Department was taking steps to provide for an extra load next year, but what these were he was not prepared to say. It was qnite possible the Department would continue" to impose restrictions until the lake level was restored to normal.

A motion was carried urging the Department to offer compensation to private owners operating their own standby plants.