HOROWHENUA POWER BOARD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3897, 19 January 1929, Page 3

HOROWHENUA POWER BOARD.

'The monthly meeting- of the Horowhenua Electric Power Board was held in Levin on Tuesday, there being present: Messrs G. A. Monk (chairman), Wl E. Barber, T. G. Vincent, E. R. Bryant, E. S. Morse, C. Blenkhorn, A. J. Petherick, A. Seifert, P. W. Goldsmith (secretary and treasurer) and J. A. Smith (engineer).

TREE- PLANTING. Replying to the secretary’s request for information on treeplanting, the Thames Valley Power Board supplied the following particulars of its operations: —Area planted, 30 acres; area ploughed, 54 acres; cost of land, £4Ol 18s lOd; area of land, 521 acres; cost of tree per acre, £3 4s 7d; cost to plough per acre, £1 18s; labour and planting, per acre, £5 Os 7d. Approximately 200 acres has been fenced, the cost of the fencing being about 25/3 per acre. With regard to the variety of the trees, the Thames Board stated'that this was left totally in the hands of the Forestry Department, which supplied the labour. The chairman said that presumably the operations were' being conducted on pumice land, which was readily ploughable and which in this case had been bought for less than £1 per acre. The information was referred to the special committee which has been set up to consider the feasibility of the Board growing trees to secure its own supply of power poles.

PENALTIES ON ACCOUNTS. Several letters were received from consumers relative to the penalties charged on accounts remaining unpaid after certain notice. A Waikanae resident suggested that the Board should offer an inducement to large consumers to deposit cash in advance to cover a period of a year. The secretary had replied that lie did not anticipate that many people would jvant to pay before they received the service; there were one or two who paid in advance for their own convenience, but he doubted whether any concession would be large enough to induce consumers generally to pay in advance.

A Paraparaumu customer wrote stating that he was paying a 3/8 fine under protest, as lie had posted a cheque on the day when bis account was due. To this the secretary bad replied that the Board had to be strictly impartial in the matter of the penalty; and country consumers whose remittances arrived by the'first mail on the 21st of the month were not penalised. Mr. Morse said he had known cases where mails posted in Otaki for northern towns had been taken to Wellington before reaching their destinations. A client in Otaki was postitive that he had posted his remittance on the 15th of the month, but it had not reached the secretary till the 17th. The speaker had since explained to him that he could pay the money into the Board’s Otaki offijee. The secretary read correspondence from the Otaki customer, who objected to a penalty of 1/10, stating that a cheque for his account was drawn on date, October 15th. He had always posted his payments' to the Board’s office at Levin in the hope of saving time to the authorities, but in future lie would pay it at Otaki. He refused to pay the 1/10 penalty, and would fight the matter to a finish, as he considered it a gross injustice. ■Mr. |Pethericik pointed out that the Board’s accounts were due when they were presented to the consumers.

The secretary explained that consumers at Otaki, Fox ton and Shannon could pay their accounts by three methods —to the meterreader, to the local office of the Board, or through the post. In each of the three outlying towns the Borough Council office had been appointed a place where moneys due to the Board could be paid. Mr. Morse said he did not think the Otaki customer was worrying about the 1/10, but aJbout the principle of the thing. The secretary had replied to the Otaki correspondent, suggesting that he had made a mistake as to the.date and hour of posting his payment. 'The action of the secretary in replying to the objections was confirmed. TREASURER’S REPORT. The following report was submitted by the treasurer: — The total amount of the accounts paid since last meeting of the Board is £612 14s 7d. This amount is made up chiefly of wages and salaries :wages £234 13s, salaries £307 ss. The balance in-

• eludes payment for telephone ren- £ tals and bureau fees, accident ins surance claim, freights and sundry charges. The chief account to be passed is the electricity account from Mangahab for the quarter ended December 31st, 1928, the amount being £4344 12s. The highest peak for the quarter was reached on October 16th, at S a.m. The account is about £ll7B more than the preceding (September) quarter. The same quarter in previous years was as follows: —Quarter ended 31/11/25, £2996; quarter ended 31/12/26, £3730; quarter ended 31/12/27, £4764; quarter ended 31/12/28, £4344. It will thus be seen that although thes bill is not quite so large as that of last year’s account for the same quarter, it is still a considerable amount, which takes some collecting, and there should be a

number of substantial quarterly ac counts to help the ordinary re venue to meet the account. The other accounts for paymen amount to £258 15s 2d, the chic] items consisting of accounts foi copper-wire, ranges, railway sleepers, motor, spares -and covers foj vehicles, and several sundry accounts.

ACCOUNTS. The holiday season is usually quiet —a quiet time so far as the Board’s revenue is concerned—and this year is no exception to the rule. Still, £2500 was received during December, -of which amount £IBSO was for electricity. Over £SOO of the ambuiit was for installations and service lines, bringing the total receipts for .the nine months of the year well over £5,000. The following table shows the position with regard to cash re-

eeipts: — Dec. April- £ Dee. £ Electricity 1851 27,873 I'cmilticsi 24 245 Installations and ser vice lines 522 5,231 Consumers’ deposits 11 100 Interest on installations 38 327 Cottage rents and sundries 62 684 £2510 £34,461 (Shillings and pence omitted). The report was adopted.