POWER AUTHORITIES' CONFERENCE.

Shannon News, 23 August 1929, Page 4

POWER AUTHORITIES' CONFERENCE.

REVIEW BY HOROWHENUA BOARD'S CHAIRMAN.

Some of the features of the'Conference of Power Boards and supply authorities were referred to, at the meeting of the Horowhenua Power Board on Tuesday, by the Chairman (Mr G. A. Monk), who had attended the conference in company with Mr A. J. Pctherick, the Engineer (Mr J. A. Smith) and the Secretary (Mr P. W. Goldsmith). He stated that it was the seventli annual conference, and was attended by about 150 delegates, representing 47 Power Boards and supply authorities. One of the delegates, and a very good one, was a lady —Mrs McCombs, of Christchureh. One innovation, said Mr Monk, was that it was proposed to have, next year, a conference week. In the last 'two or thre years, the engineers and the secretaries had met in conference a considerable time prior to the general conference. Next year the officers would meet at the beginning of the week, and the Boards' and authorities' delegates in the latter part of the week. MINISTER'S CONSISTENCY. The Conference was opened by the Hon. E. A. Ransom, Minister of Public Works, who was accompanied by the Hon. J. G. Coates, Leader of the Opposition. Mr Ransom made a very fine address; while he did not promise very much, he told the Conference that he would be quite consistent about his former remit at six conferences whici urged that the Government's charge for the first 200 k.v.a. should be reduced to £lO. The Minister said, "If I cannot give you that, I'will be able to give you a very good reason why I cannot." Mr Ransom dealt very comprehensively with what had been done as far as development of power in New Zealand was concerned. FORESIGHT OF LATE GOVERNMENT. The Chairman went on to say that Mr Coates was very interesting in his address; he knew the thing from A to Z, The Leader, of the Opposition and former Prime Minister made one remark' of particular interest, as having a bearing on the recent disastrous earthquake on the West Coast. He said that, while the development of hydroelectric power had been very expensive in places, especially at Mangahao, he thought that, in view of what had occurred in the South Island, it might bj quite justified. The North Island would have three main sources of supply —Arapuni, Waikaremoana and Mangahao,'which would ultimately be linked up. If anything untoward happened in one district, it would not have the effect of cutting off the whole supply for a considerable time. The chairman thought that, if the authorities i-.ad had this in mind in the first place, jt showed a great deal of foresight.

DEPEECIATION FUNDS

A matter that had come -in for a •good deal of discussion, the Chairman stated, was in connection with the depreciation fund. He was very pleased to say that the general opinion of the Conference was that, the depreciation funds, a s suggested to be established, were good; and, with one or two exceptions, he thought that' they were generally acceptable to the whole cf th; Power Boards of the country. How ever, there were one or two exceptions, and it had been suggested that those Boards that had been in operation for some time when the Act came into force had some advantage over those that had just come into being. The Act allowed seven years for the establishment of the fund; the later formed Boards would .not have that period, and some of them had made objection, having districts that were oi a scattered nature. The general opinion of the Conference was that the depreciation fund was warranted and that :;he amount set apart by the Act was quite fair. TBEE:CUTTING.

- Another hardy annual was in reference to tree-cutting; it had been dealt with a good many times. The Conference passed a resolution that legislation be enacted to provide that if, after due notification, the property-owner neglects to cut trees, he shall be held responsible for damage, a'nd that a Board may, at its own discretion, cut trees and recover the cost of doing so, wttliout anv liability for damages. INSTANTANEOUS WATERHEATERS.

One of the main items dealt with by the Engineers' Conference was with reference to instantaneous water-heaters. In this Board's district, 600 of the storage type had been installed. There had recently come on to the market a new water-heater, which was somewhat on the principle of a caliphont, the water heating as it ran through the appliance. The tendency of this type, as far as he could gather, would be, in this district, to rush the peak up at certain hours; it might have the effect cf creating a peak that the Board could not control, and it would require heavier wiring. It was reported that it had been well received in Sydney, aiid was used in considerable numbers there, where it had not had a bad effect. It was utilised a good deal in fiats at night, at times when there was not much demand on current for other purposes. The conference- asked for a regulation that no water-heaters of greater capacity than 3 k.w. be allowed to be installed.

THE 1928 COMMITTEE. The Chairman added that a pape: was received from the Secretaries' Conference in retply Ito Contentions made by the 1928 Committee. The latter body had made the statement that there had been much unfair trading by Power Boards as against ordinary traders. Mr Brown, chairman -'>f the Secretaries' Conference, had gone very carefully into the matter, circularised the whole of the Boards in New Zealand, and received various replies, which

i'ng below traders' prices was about showed that the proportion of Boards which were actually trading and sellfour per cent, and that the excuse of the latter Boards was that they hadelectricity to sell and wanted t> supply the appliances as quickly and cheaply" as possible to the consumers. DEPUTATION TO WORKS MINISTER. In conclusion, the chairman thanked the members for the opportunity of representing the Board, and expressed his appreciation of the good work done by the Secretaries' and Engineers' Conferences. He added that the executive met the Hon. Mr Ransom, after the Conference and placed most of the information before him, and the Minister received them very kindly. MiRansom had been a Power Board chairman for a good many years; he gave the executive quite a non-committal reply, saying he was pleased that they had placed these matters before him and that he would be pleased to look into them. Mr A. J. Petherick thanked the members for having given him the opportunity of the Conference, which he had found most interesting. He considered that the - reports from the Engineers' and Secretaries' Committees were the whole backbone of the Conference. It had been rather surprising to hear" of the different bodies that constituted the 1928 Committee, the chairman of which was Mr Stronach Patterson. It was stated that it was the 1928 Committee that had put the Coates Government out of office. That Committee was "barking up the wrong tree" with its assertion about Power 'Boards dealing to the detriment of private traders.