WAIPUKURAU DISPUTE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 27, 26 October 1937, Page 13

WAIPUKURAU DISPUTE

Pumping of Water In addition to the several speakers, all more or less condemnatory of the Waipukurau Borough Council's attitude toward the electric pumping dispute, whose speeches were outlined in the Herald-Tribune report of the montlily meeting of the Central Hawke's Bay Power Board, Messrs A. C. Holmes and R. R.yan also took part. The former briefly pointed out that there was no call to pursue the contentious subject further, because the council had only reaffirmed its interpretation of the 1926 agreement, which sliouldi be read in the liglit of being a corollary to the sale of the Borouglx plant and reticulation to the Board. The viewpoint of the Borough Council, he said, was that the onus of fixing reasonable off-speak hours lay with the board, whilo the board held that the responsibility of avoiding peak costs was that of the council. in sucli circumstances it would be sufficient for the board to adhere to the resolutiou passed tvvo montlis back, in relying on its interpretatiou of the agreement, as amended in 1930. He "moved, and Mr. Chambers secouded, that the letter from the Borough Council be "received,'' but eventually agreed to Avithdraw this motion in favour of the more detuiledi proposition of Messrs. Pattison and Rathbone, and Mr. Ryan suggested that, in the interests of conciliation^ it would be helplul if representatives of the board attended a Borough Council meeting and explained the peak-fixing difficulties, but no action was taken.