RETIRING MEMBERS AT TE HORO.

Shannon News, 8 May 1923, Page 4

RETIRING MEMBERS AT TE HORO.

JUSTIFY THEIIt ADMINISTRATION

At. tiro To Lloro Hull on Friday, Mr (r. A. Monk, chairman of the Power Don id, addressed the electors of the To I-loro riding on matters relating to the working of Ilia Board. Messrs A. A. Brown .and A. Seii'erl, the other district members of the Board, also took the opportunity ol addressing the electors prior to the approaching election. There was a Fair attendance and the favourable spirit, of the meeting was shown in the total absence of questions or criticism. Mr 11. I/. Beauchamp was elected to the chair. Mr Monk, who, on rising, was greeted with applause, explained that, the Power Board was elected 14 months ago lor a period of three years, but- at the request of different Power Boards, the. Government had made an alteration in the Act so that every Power Board which had held office for a period of 12 months, had to face another election, this bringing all Boards into line. As far as this Power Board as concerned it was only a few morph since he had come here and addressed a meeting on Power matters, and the people had agreed to raise money to reticulate the district. Tie was sure that they had every confidence in the Board elected at that, lime, and would mention in passing that in the remaining districts Ihe six members had been relrn -al unopposed; There had keen a good deal of criticism of the Board’s activities, lately. He did not resent criticism, hut. there were some kinds that were not fair to the members of ihe Board. Tn addressing a meeting in Levin recently, ho had asked that any criticism should be brought forward on Ihe Public platform, so that there would be a chance to answer it. It. had been inferred that there had been a tremendous lot of waste and that, they were paying ioo much to their engineer. In regard to this he would reply that the prevention of waste was one of ihe first things a Power Board had to look to A scheme of this sort laid them open to great waste, and the Board had felt that in order to prevent such, it was necessary to get ihe best possible man in New Zealand for their engineer. lie felt safe in saying that they had got. a good man, and it had been moved over arid over that this was got his training at the Waipori scheme at Dunedin, a scheme which was most successful. The Board had heard of this man, and he was one of the applicants for the position when applications for an engineer were called for, Mr Overion was in request in other parts, and they knew if they wanted to get him they would have to out hid ihe other follow. They had offered •C 1.000 per annum and it was money well spent. Many of those pre-sent ha t heard of the Central Power Board, which was one of the most, successful in the Waikato. Mr Overton was tbo man who planned and carried out. (Ids work from its initial stages 1o Ihe distribution of power. He therefore had Hint experience and Horowhenua was gelling I,he benefit of it. lie found ihat one of his greatest difficulties was in reference to the buying of poles, and in coming here he had recommended that he he allowed to go over to inspect the forests from which Ihe pole.s were, to he obtained. Mr Seifert, another member of the Board, contemplated a visit to Australia at ihe time and offered to co-operate with the engineer. One charge made against, the Power Board was that they had paid Mr Seifert's expenses, but he ; wished them clearly to uinderstandj that the only part of Mr Seifert’s expenses paid by the Board was from: the time he left Sydney to go to inspect the forests, an amount totalling €l6.

In reference lo poles, 'hey must understand that (here was a* great deal of difference in polos, and these men had travelled about 1o discover just I whore the hesi were iu he obtained. They had seen different agents and £IOOO on the poles needed for the disIriet. Furthermore he could say thni they wete the finest lot of poles that had ever come into llris country. Out of ihe whole number landed in this district, there were only 14 condemned, and Ihey were suitable for a smaller Hass. Praetioallv every pole had come r> ..ver-sj/.e. These men had seen where Ihe poles came from, and had procured them from slow growing hill country. As they Know it was possible lo grow blue-gums in rich conndry and "have them big enough in 1.1

I years to use as power-poles. The poles pureha c ed were iron-bark, and by getting them only from the right class if (Mmnlry they could say that, 10 years had been nut on to the life nr the pole s :. (Applause). Ouning down to personal matters, he was not going to say anythin" I about: what lie himself bad done. He | had done bis best, according to his j abilities, and it was for the ratepayers ! now 10 say whether he should ronI thrue to represent them. For the other , two members of the Board he conk 1 ' say that, they had always given of I flt'or best, their ears had always been at (he service of the Board, and everything possible done to save money The engineer assured him that Ibis was one of the best districts in New Zealand for reticulation. The business nf the Board was reticulation and they could be sure that if would be • bmp a . ptieaniv as it was possible to do if. Tn conclusion bo would ask that if there was any criticism, to let it, come nut in the open and not he whispered about. The Board might have made mistakes hut they had been yen- few. and this was mainly due to bavin" in Mr Overton an experienced man at the head of affairs. tAppteniSp'. Mr Seifert, who spoke next, thanked the gaihering for giving him the cjv ponnnity m speak. He represented the other end of the district, but perhaps they might have board of him. He would explain that when the Power

Board was mooted he had had no intention of joining U, but had been pressed to do so by friends. He had been connected with power all his life. Tfo bad been in ibis island for 35 years and bad been connected with milling all that time. Resides this he wa-. piob.nbly one of file biggest ralepayer" in This e-ountrv.. since being elected he had done hP herd to represent the people of Tbis district. As

regards this area, the Board was in i ail {especially .good position to sell ] power. The district might not be as large as some, but against that they were no towns running their own plants and which would only take power wholesale. Another thing was thi; flnxmills. If the flax W3S not destroyed by the yellow l£pi, the flaxmills could take all the power it was possible to give them. The mills at present, in the district would need over 1500 horse power. Mr Monk had referred to his trip to Australia to buy poles. The members of the Board knew that he was visiting Australia on private business and had asked him if lie would join Mr Overton, in looking into the business of getting poles. The only expenses he had been paid was from Sydney m the forests. He had travelled over 1000 miles aiv 1 spent about a fortnight on the business of the Board. Incidentally he would tell them that lie had been in Melbourne three day before the Melbourne Cup and friends could not understand how he could leave before the Cup was run. (Laughter). But. he had done this in -order not. to delay Mr Overton. They had interviewed different. men about poles, looked through several forests, and could say confidently that they had let good contracts. He was proud to be asso-ci-iled with these contracts and could assure them that, the poles were as good as any ever imported into New aland. Take the following prices fur i ion bark poles: toft, length, 14 inches diameter 6ft trf.ai the ground, 82/6. fait, diameter 12 inches, 53/-. :*«3ft., diameter 1.1 inches, 43/3. 30tt, diameter 11 inches, 38/-. -811. diameter 10 inches, 31/6. 85-ft. diameter 8 inches, 19/-. Further they must remember that thesp were the prices landed in Wel•i• I ton and it took 40 per cent, of the ■' 'al amount in freight. As regards the Engineer, there was • ne point Mr Monk had not referred m. When the Board was committed t ' carrying out this work it had to u-eide between getting an engineer who would devote all his time to the \v rk and obtaining the services of a consulting engineer, who would want

-> --e,. ceu t. at, least over the whole of tV money expended. In that case Vi'y 'could have paid out considerably •• than at present, They had ad- '■ i-ti-ed for engineers and had picked 'l - nverton who had had experience 'Vaipori and the Central Power T ' v l scheme, which he was still in •‘ a • m of as supervisor. If they had - aged a consulting engineer with a ’' g : epulation, he would probably ’ md on some other man who - ‘ dil not lie so good id do the aclual • ’A. and there would have been ern 1 ' dissatisfaction. Other Power H ■ 'ards had employed consulting eri'ineers and had to do as they were '- ; later on. He would not take up. o-.o much of their time, hut. would noeiy say that if elected again he -v ' 0 ( ] ,i 0 his bosl lo serve their inier■•sfs. He had a lot of knowledge of •'■ ••ei' and also of farmers’ require- • o K Electricity would make a great i difference to this district and > dd make it a great deal pleasanter ■o ■ -'a to live in. If the ratepayers ■m i oi want him. he could assure them that there would be no grievoh:-‘ on that score. 'Continued applause). in reply to Mr Beauchamp he sab’ i’v.t the engineer was still receiving - -davv from the Central Power • rd. inft would finish his contract them in iwo months. i Mr V. A. Brown said thal his reason ! wishing to be re-elected was that ] '■•e wanted to see the scheme complet-1

al economically. He did not thinK he could supplement greatly what the ■thcr men had said, but he would read fo them the report of the chairman of the Power Board, which ex'dained fully what had been done up t ! date, lie also read Mr McKay's report of his trip to the Waikato, in which he explained that daily farmers were putting out internal eombusiion engines everywhere and going in lor electricily; so much so that the Boards could not cope with the demand. The chairman then called on Mr F. McDonald to address the meeting.

Mr McDonald said lie was there ii a dual capacity, and had to thank M Monk for giving him an opportunit; of addressing the meeting. He wou.]< read for them two sentences from- hi published address lo electors, the firs referring to his determination to d< all in his power for the good of thi district if elected, and the'other abou block voting. There was a reasor for wording these sentences in thi. 1 way. There was a certain amount, o block voting going on, but be did no' wani to say too much about ibis at the present juncture. They had heard the other candidates for Ihe Power Board and he would say th a I they had a good Power Board and a good F.ngineer. He was not, there in a spirit of petty criticism, but, it had been put

to him that there was too much power in the hands off' Mr Monk and Mr P.iown who were very closely connected and also lived at the far end of the district,. These men said that they bad been connected with the Power Board for a long time, and would like to see the scheme brought to fruition. This wa.s for the electors to judge. He would say that if it were a personal contest between him and Mr Monk he would not oppose him, but even it he were to pull out, there would still be ai contest. He was certainly hot going to pull out. He was going to stand and the ballot box would be the test. Tf the electors were satisfied i lia I the present, men had done what -I'iould have, been done, then let them be pul back-. They had a duty to perform in putting back the best men j