HOROWHENUA POWER BOARD

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3679, 18 August 1927, Page 2

HOROWHENUA POWER BOARD

MONTHLY MEETING. The monthly meeting of the Horowhenua Electric Power Board was held in the Municipal Chambers, Levin, on Tuesday, there being present : Messrs G. A. Monk (chairman), \Y. E. Barber, T. G. Vincent, R. Bryant, E. Morse, C. Blenkhorn, A. J. Petherick, A. Seifert, W. H. Gunning, P. W. Goldsmith (secretary), and J. A. Smith (engineer). TREASURER’S REPORT. The report by the treasurer (Mr. Goldsmith) was as under: — Accounts. —The accounts to be confirmed amount to £IOOO 17s 9d and those for payment to £35(14 7s 9d, making a total of £4505 5s (Id. In the accounts for confirmation, the chief items are: \Vages, me-ter-reader’s car, railway freight on poles, and an electrical installation The payments for the day include the half-yearly instalments- on two of our loans from the Government Life Insurance Office,, the amount being £2035 4s Bd. Poles account for £444, transformers, meters and insulators about £4OO, installations £2lO, Levin and Shannon Borough Council rates £74, benzine £75 ; railway sleepers £SO, circuit breakers and limtors £52, tyres and spares £56, insurance premiums £2l. There are quite a number of small accounts this month. Receipts for July.—Electricity accounts for the month include the bulk of tbe large quarterly accounts, hence the amount is considerable —viz., £4967. The total receipts for this month, also for the four months of the financial year already gone, are respectively as follows: — Installations and fittings and service lines, July £992 3s lid, total to July 31 £2955 18s lOd. Interest on accounts, £94 19s, £229 18s 2d. ' . Consumers’ deposits, £ll, £4O 10s. Electricity and meter rents, £4967 Is lid, £14,855 3s 4d. Penalties, £22 Is lOd, £65 9s 6d. Rents and miscellaneous, £33 Is lid, £157 4s 7d. Totals, £6120 8s Tel,-. £18,304 4s sd. *. Electricity and meter rents AprilJuly, 1927, £14,855 3s 4d. Do. April-July, 1926, : £12,053 Is 7d. Increase, £2802 Is 9d. It will thus be seen that in spite of the depression and general shortage of money the returns, for July have been satisfactory. The increase in the receipts for the financial year for electricity and meter rents (four months), as compared with the same period last year, may also be classed as satisfactory. Outstanding Accounts. —‘Further attention has been given to matters relating to the various accounts due to the Board. In the majority of ■ cases there has either been a fair response, or the consumers whose instalments are somewhat in arrears are very hopeful of catching up during the next few months. No Pay, no Light.—The final “cut off” notices have been sent out to about 20. consumers during the month. Six failed to respond in time, and were cut off. Half this number, however, have already found means to meet their just debts, and are no longer in darkness. The chairman stated that the treasurer’s report showed a very satisfactory position as far as the sale of electricity was concerned, there being an increase of over £2, 800 as compared with the same period of last year. It looked as if the Board’s estimates of sales would be to some extent exceeded. In the second half of the year, however, there would be no meter rents. On the receipts shown now, moreover, there were two quarterly accounts. , A feature that was not very encouraging was that no fewer than 20 final “cut-off” notices had to be sent to consumers, and this was a sign of the times. The report was adopted. ANALYSIS OF CONNECTED LOAD. The following table shows the particulars of the connected load to August 10th: — k.w. Lighting 933 Total No. h.p. Industrial motors 230 2667 Milking motors 354 518 Heating and iron points 2475 1771 Ranges 269 1693 Water Heaters 492 315 Consumers, connected 2668 Applications 2701 Total connected k.w. - 7123 The Chairman said that members would notice that the connected load was still rising. The usual maintenance and repair work had been carried out. The big transformers had been oil-drained and filtered, and they should be good to carry on until next season. The report was adopted.