POWER BOARD’S POLICY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 645, 23 April 1929, Page 11

POWER BOARD’S POLICY

FUTURE OF WAITEMATA ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN Speaking before the Waitemata Chamber of Commerce at Devonport last evening, Mr. J. W. Hayden, chairman of the Waitemata ElectricBower Board, gave an interesting story of the growth of the board in three years, from when it was the smallest board in the Dominion to its becoming fourth in point of number of consumers. Mr. T. Walsh, who presided, laid the success of the board to the very fine team work of the board chairman and members. He predicted Mr. return for one of the Takapuna seats and that he would in consequence again become chairman of the board. Mr. Hayden suggested that a power board could be run on strictly business lines only up to a certain point. Beyond that, local body policy had to bo followed, in that any profits made be returned to the public in lessened charges or other concessions, whereas in business, all the profits possible would be retained for development work. The board, however, had decided that all capital expenditure should be out of loan. The loan liability now was £ 341,000, and there was an unexhausted authority for another £21,000. As extensions w’ere continual further loans would have to be raised, possibly before the end of the next financial year. The board had set out to -wipe out the loan liability taken over from Devonport, which matured in 1936. The revenue had jumped up from £ 15,853 to £68,392 in two years, while price reductions to the extent of £3,000 had been made and further slight lowering of certain rates had been authorised. A remarkable fact was that while the current purchased last year had cost only £I,OOO more, tho revenue had gone up by £13,000. MANY CONSUMERS

This was partly explained by the elimination of the cost of working the old Devonport station and partly to the better load factor, which the engineering staff had succeeded in bringing up to 60 per cent. There had been an agitation for an amalgamation with Auckland, but an examination of all the rates showed that on an average over all of them, Waitemata was only l-20th of a penny higher, so that an amalgamation would not mean much financial advantage. This was very good when the peculiar difficulties confronting the scattered area of the board were taken into consideration. Mr. Hayden also demonstrated that criticism levelled at the board when it built its offices in Albert Street had not been justified by time. It would soon be necessary to build a third storey to provide office room to handle 11,000 customers’ accounts. The present number was over 6,000. The cost of the building would work out at £ 4 a week, and would come out of revenue.

Answering criticism about power boards trading against private firms, Mr. Hayden entered a plea of not guilty for his board. It had advanced £36,000 to finance customers who wanted power, and this money had been spent in contract work. The board did not indent stoves or other appliances, but bought them from local agents, and it canvassed its district for new customers which it fitted out from local stocks. The board actually helped private traders. The budget for next year was on an estimated profit of £7OO, and no further concessions in price could be looked for. Later on it might be possible, though he would favour, increased discounts when the time came. The average price charged for current was 1.9 d, as against 2.1 d last year, due to the penny reduction in lighting charges, while the cost of each unit purchased had dropped from 0.55 d to 0.398 d.

The board would get a big load from the city pumping works in the Huia, and it was remarkable how new load kept appearing. The board had 357 miles of lines and 6,618 consumers connected to them, out of a population of 39,000, scattered over 627 square miles. Mr. S. E. Kenning and Mr. G. Trevithick, retiring members of the board, also spoke expressing appreciation of the fact that, as Devonport members, they had always been entrusted with the handling of Devonport matters, and had been given much latitude by the other members in adjusting matters that arose.

After a number of questions had been asked, a vote of thanks to the speaker and a sincere hope that the board would continue to advance was recorded.