PLANT TO MEET POWER SHORTAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 80, 25 June 1927, Page 11

PLANT TO MEET POWER SHORTAGE

GOVERNMENT’S PLAN ERECTION OF AUXILIARIES (.THE SUK’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. Electricity generating plant is to be purchased by the Government to meet some of the threatened shortage of power in the Auckland Province, occasioned by the delay in the completion of the Arapuni hydro-electric scheme. The Minister of Public Works, the Hon. K. S. Williams, said to-day that he was unable to give details of the plant that was being acquired, where it would b be installed, or when it would be ready. Finality had also not yet been reached as to the financing of the extra cost of the additional plant. It was the intention of the Government to carry out the decision of the recent conference at Hamilton between the Public Works Department and the representatives of the power boards concerned. He hoped to be able to make a further announcement in a few days. At the Hamilton conference it was suggested auxiliary plant might be provided at Penrose, Otahuhu or Waihi, and that the capital cost might be divided between the Government and the power boards concerned. It was also suggested the Government might recover the board’s share of tire cost either by a levy when the work was completed or by charging a higher rate for the power supplied.