HOROWHENUA POWER BOARD

Shannon News, 21 December 1926, Page 3

HOROWHENUA POWER BOARD

BOARD ENGINEER’S REPORT. The following information is contained in the monthly report of the Horowhenua Pow r er Board engineer (Mr. J. A. Smith, A.M.1.E.E.), which 'was adopted at the meeting of the Board held on Tuesday: — No. 1 gang have run four service lineg, erected 51 poles and fitted crossbars on 60 poles; run 500 ehaifas of wire, erected 12 earth guards, two line switches and built one sub-station platform and tower. They have strained and bound-in that section of LevinFoxton 11,000 volt line from iers’ settlement to the Manawatu River, % and' erected the wires across the river and completed this line. No. 2 gang have run 24 service lines, erected 10 poles, and run 206 chains of wire. They have erected three street lamps at Paekakariki, and three lamps at the Otaki Sanatorium. They made several alterations to services and stay wires. The gang have dismantled the County crusher service and disconnected the transformer. No. gang have run three services, and been engaged chiefly in line examination, making necessary alterations and general maintenance, and at Shannon sub-station. •

The electric fitter has run four services, , erected two earth guards, and one street lamp at Levin fire station. He has reconditioned a number of street lamp fittings. General. —During the period the Levin-Foxton circuit was completed and the. Manakau south circuit is now being built, and the engineer expects to have the consumers on this line connected before the holidays.. 35 services were run during the period and four extra street lamps erected. The house for the. foreman has been completed with the exception of the fencing, and will be occupied next week. The Public Works electrical inspecting engineer made a complete inspection of all lilies, sub-stations and equipment throughout the Board’s area, .and found everything satisfactory. The load is steadily increasing, the peak load during the period being 1770 K.V.A. High Peak Load. “I should like to point out,” said the chairman when the. engineer’s report was adopted, *‘that our peak load has reached 1770 k.v.a. That is rather astounding, but the engineer assures me that the units are being consumed. The only thing that startles one- is that it should reach that height. As long as we are consuming the units, it js all right. • / Mr. Gunning: How does the diversity compare with the general load? Mr. Smith: Very well. It merely comes up to that several times during the day. Sometimes we get the peak between 11 and 12 o’clock. It is fairly high all the afternoon until five o’clock. We get about eight hours of a good solid load. There will be near 1 ly 1000 kilowatts coming from Shannon south in the mornings. It has been up to 870 already, and we expect 1000 in about a month. Fire Losses.

Mr. Vincent said that during the ■month some gear had been,, destroyed by lire. ■ He wondered how the Board was situated in the case of a fire where the stallation was on the time-payment system. Thp chairman: The consumer should have it covered by insurance. . Mr. Vincent: The property owners, in the case of rented premises, is bearing the cost of installation. If a place which is not insured is burnt down, the owner would have to cough up for something from which he was not getting the benefit. , . * The chairman: It is a liability, and we have had to pay out on it —we lose over meters. I suppose if there was a case of .very great hardship the matter could be considered by the Board on its merits. I don’t say that with the idea of ■ inviting anyone to come along, though. I do not think we should depart from the present method, in making any promise that any concessions should be given. Finance Committee.

The Finance .Committee recommended that a new Chevrolet car .be purchased for the use of the foreman, and that the present .Chevrolet be used at Paraparaumu for the Board’s representative there (Mr. 11. A.. Smith). It was also recommended by the the Finance Committee that from December Ist to the end of the financial year Mr. H. A. Smith’s remuneration be £1 a week for attention to street lights, service fuses, effecting temporary repairs, and reporting faults and troubles; also that he receive half the yearly rental of telephone as the

.DOaru'S SUclli; UA uoc, arou ' ~~ car and its running cost in the Board s work. ” The chairman stated that the engineer had interviewed the Paraparaumu representative and asked him to make an offer, which he had done. The matter was then considered by the Committee with the result shown in the report. It had been t decided to defer for a month or two the question of a car for the meter reader. The nearest j representative of the Board at the present time was stationed at Otaki, and j the journey from there to Paraparaumu > and back was about 30 miles. Provid-1 ed that the Otaki man could be kept fully employed, the proposed arrange- , ment was worthy of a trial. The num- | ber of consumers at Paraparaumu was 130, and ..they were increasing. It was t possible that the Board might have to i| call on Mr. Smith to visit Waikanae ; and, in exceptional cases, PaekakarikL Mr. Petherick said the Board would. , not go very far wrong in making theproposed agreement ■ with Mr. Smithy who had been called out innumerable* times. He thought the Board would, find that in case of emergency Mr..; 'Smith would be only too willing to goto Waikanae or Paekakariki if the* * Board’s men were not available. The report was adopted, on t’he

motion of the chairman, seconded byMr. Matheson. Christmas Holidays. It was resolved that wages, salaries and accounts be paid before' the Christmas holidays; all such payments to ■come up for confirmation at the next meeting. ' The Board’s office will be closed from the evening of December 23rd to the morning of January sth. The sec- • retary, Mr. Goldsmith, was granted y three weeks ’ leave of absence, i Complimentary. \ The chairman conveyed his good [ washes to the members of the Board ; and the staff for the holidays, and ex-1 " pressed the hope that they would have I a bright and merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. He I thanked »the Board for the excellent | support accorded him in the past year, ; and also thanked the press for giving publicity to the Board’s work. Mr. Matheson responded on behalf of the Board, and in return wished the chairman a merry Christmas. He hoped that Mr. Monk would get his share of all the prosperity that might be coming. The secretary (Mr. Goldsmith) and the engineer (Mr. Smith) reciproca ed the chairman’s compliments to the 9 Btaff. .