POWER CELEBRATION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 914, 6 March 1930, Page 1

POWER CELEBRATION

OFFICIAL CHANGE-OVER TODAY INTERESTING FUNCTIONS To mark the official change-over to electric power from Arapuni, the opening of the board's new buildings in Queen Street, and the completion of 21 years of electrical undertaking in the city, appropriate ceremonies are being held by the Auckland Power Board this afternoon. The first function will take place at the board room at the Queen Street office, where a tablet to the memory of the late Mr. Alexander Wylie, who was the first general manager of the Auckland Power Board, will be unveiled. The guests will afterward be shown over the new building. At three o’clock the official changeover is being made at the King’s Wharf station, when the hydro-electric power from Arapuni will officially supersede the old steam plant. The ceremony is to be performed by the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, who will turn off two steam turbines and switch on the rotary converters to mark the inception of water-power. The guests will be shown through the station to give them an impression of the size of the plant which will be required to be maintained as a stand-by. On the ground floor of the board’s old offices in Quay Street afternoon tea will then be served, after which speeches will then be given by the Minister of Public Works; the Deputy-Mayor, Mr. A. J. Entrican; the chairman of the board, Mr. W. J. Holdsworth; the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. M. Stewart, and the representative of the builders, Mr. J. Fletcher. Arrangements have been made to have the ceremony broadcast between 2.45 and 4.45 p.m. A stall gathering is to be held in the evening. The Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, who was to have spoken at the ceremony, will be unable to be present owing to a previous arrangement in the South Island. The Mayor, Mr. G. Baildon, is also unable to be present, as he is at present attending the Municipal Conference in Invercargill.