A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 594, 21 February 1929, Page 8

A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

JJUBLIG confidence in the administration of the Auckland * Power Board is so great that, out of approximately 30,000 ratepayers, less than 5,000 cast votes at the loan poll yesterday. Had the issue been one that the public mind had doubts about the voting would have been heavier, and clear indication of faith in the hoard’s administration has been given by the overwhelming majority in favour of the loan for £675,000. The Power Board, in seven years of service, has been able to lay away formidable reserve funds and this, of course, cannot fail to be a source of satisfaction to the ratepayers. Their interests, indeed, have been studiously safeguarded, and so far as general administration is concerned, the Power Board has a record placing it among the most efficient local bodies in the Dominion. All this is extremely gratifying; but it might be urged that the board would have been still more popular had it been less interested in the welfare of the ratepayers and more interested in the welfare of the consumers.

During the campaign that was necessary to turn public attention to the loan proposed, members of the board were subjected to a recurring piece of criticism concerning the high prices charged for power in commercial and domestic use. It was impossible to make just complaint against the administration, but there was a suggestion of discontent on the part of the consumers. The chairman, Mr. W. J. Holdsworth, has, however, announced that the hoard’s policy had been one of building up reserve funds and its success in that direction was one of the good reasons why the loan proposal merited the approval it received. With new funds at its disposal the board will embark upon works for the extension of services that have proved profitable in the past. There are big days ahead, more especially now that abundant supplies of power from Arapuni are in sight. Responsible State engineers and visiting politicians have banished the spectre of catastrophe at the dam, and the board can now make confident preparation for notable developments of its supply to the Auckland isthmus. For seven years it has laboured toward a goal, and now that goal is within reach. Careful administration has made attainment possible and the public, to a considerable extent, has lightened the financial burdens of the board. There is, of course, no angry objection to be made to that so long as the consumers are assured now that their time of burden-carrying is over. The board has attained what it set out to attain, and the public has every right to expect that power rates will be reduced.