POWER CHANGE-OVER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 915, 7 March 1930, Page 13

POWER CHANGE-OVER

AUCKLAND NOW RUNS ON ARAPUNI

MINISTER OFFICIATES Steam engines, which for years had not ceased to roar in an atmosphere of stifling heat, now lie motionless and cool. Thous- . ands of horse-power which used to generate Auckland's electric power supply in the King’s Wharf station stand repressed—looking on while the energy once generated from within fs brought from | without. Electricity got from black coal has given place to : power from white. I The change from the familiar f steam plant was made at an import- : ant function yesterday afternoon per- | formed by the Minister of Public i " orks, the Hon. K. A. Ransom. High j on a background of switches and i glow ing lights lie shut off tile steam | fi'oin the remaining generators still | running though Arapuni has arrived, i Grouped round the massive engines | several hundred citizens watched. A I dull roar died iit a long-drawn sigh, j ‘’The Minister will now switch over j to Arapuni.” The speaker was Mr. | T - J. Holdsworth, chairman of the j Auckland lilectric-Power Board. Mr. j Ransom moved another switch. Came | a crescendo until ordinary speech I was impossible. Shouting to the j assembly the chairman conveyed 1 with a gesture of pride that all Atick I laud was vibrating and being lighted from a hundred miles away. After inspecting the great transformers the visitors were conducted through the stokehold. It was strangely quiet. Its once fevered breath was now cool. Two boilers only- out of that former raging avenue were alive. They will bo maintained at pressure so that the steam generators may . be wakened to life at a moment’s notice in event of Arapum’s temporary failure. The ceremony in iTie power station had been preceded by a simple and a touching one at the Power Board’s new building in Queen Street. There in the presence of a large company, Mr, Holdsworth had unveiled a mural tablet to the memory of the board’s first engineer, Mr. Alexander Wyllie, M.A.M.1.E.E., who died in 1925 after IS years’ service. “Mr. Wyllie was a cultured gentleman who stood high in his profession,” said Mr. Holdsworth. Tile guests then went to King’s Wharf and after the ceremony .there sat down to afternoon tea in the board’s old Quay Street offices. OVERCAME DIFFICULTIES As a prelude to a number of speeches Mr. Holdsworth read an apology from the Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, who was unavoidably absent on partv business in the South Island. He conveyed his thanks for the invitation and congratulated the board on attaining its majority. “It was during Mr. Coates’s term as Minister of Public Works that negotiations were begun for the development of Arapuni,” Mr. Holdsworth reminded the assembly. “In face of great diffi culties he carried on and overcame them.” In welcoming Mr. Ransom the chairman said that the new Minister had been interested in hydroelectricity for many years, having himself been chairman of a power board. “This occasion is not ohiy important to your city; it is also important to the Public Works Department,” said Mr. Ransom in reply. “Our interests are your interest!;. The introduction of electric power is calculated not only to increase industry in this centre but it will make it a much cleaner city by the elimination of chimneys and smoke and the disabilities under which people live in large areas in the Old World.” He believed j that electricity would in due course be produced at much cheaper rates than was possible with steam. After outlining the Government’s intentions in tho employment of electric energy wherever possible the Minister remarked that New Zealand stood high in the world’s users of electricity. The new power was destined to play a still more important part in the future of Dominion industries. Water power would make possible the supply of power to all parts of the country, with a stimulating effect on manufacture and farm production.. New Zealand was a country of vast natural resources only awaiting cheap power for their development. The coming of electric power was up to a point responsible for some unemployment, Mr. Ransom continued. That could be seen in all the plan' now lying idle at King’s Wharf. But any disability would, he believed, be overcome by the expansion of industry consequent upon the supply of cheaper power. “I have been greatly struck by the great areas of land, particularly in North Auckland, which are not carrying the population they should," the Minister said. “Electric power, however, will make country life more attractive, and the power boards are doing their part to give rural communities facilities such as town people enjoy.” NOT OUT FOR PROFIT The- department was not out for profit, the Minister said. In earlier years its hydro-electric schemes had produced losses, because the department charged the power boards only j what it knew the people could pay. | These accumulated deficits must be j paid off before there could be reducI tions in rates, but they were being I gradually caught up with as years | went on. He looked forward to the I time when all the schemes would be | paying. “Then,” he added, “we shall be in a position to consider whether we will lower our rates or pay off the national debt with our profits.” (Laughter and applause.) The Deputy-Mayor, Mr. A. .7. | Entrican, who ■ had been connected ■ with the city electricity department i since its infancy, related the history I of the first power scheme Auckland ! knew. After commenting on the | stately appearance of the board’s new ! building he remarked that he hoped ! rentals from it would be so profitable

] that charges for city lighting and j power for the tramways would be ! reduced. (Laughter.) Congratulations from the Auckland ! Chamber of Commerce were given by its president, Mr. Malcolm Stewart, j who said the board was now in the : happy position of having an almost j unlimited supply of power at its disj posal. He caused astonishment by j taking a well-known theme of the i chamber right into the enemy’s ''amp. as it were. He remarked that the ! chamber considered that State and local body trading ventures should I pay the same taxes and local rating .us private concerns. 1 A Guest: Take care; you are on dangerous ground. (Laughter.) • t Works Department or the Power Board, only existing legislation,” replied Mr. Stewart, amid more »aughter. Mr. J. Fletcher, managing director of the Fletcher Construction Company, contractors for the new building, expressed his appreciation of the good relations which had existed between the builders, the architects and the general manager of the Power | Board. Mr. R. H. Bartley, throughout i the progress of the contract. | On behalf of the architects. Mr. j Norman Wade said that the whole | building undoubtedly reflected a very 1 high standard of craftsmanship. As a memento of the occasion Mr. ; Wade presented Mr. Ransom with a j specially-made silver inkwell from his ! firm and the contractors. BUILDING DEFENDED ] In a scintillating speech Mr. floldsworth made capital out of opponents of the board's policy of building the j new offices. He also defended the | existing scale of power charges. Mr. Holdsworth referred to ‘‘club critics” | who were in the habit of attacking the I board’s policy. Some of them said j that the board ought to pay rates. As a matter of fact it did pay rates — more than 10,000 a year. The Deputy-Mayor had suggested a reduction in charges for power, but the board was thinking seriously of asking for a reduction in city rates. (Laughter.) Speaking of the new building, Mr. Holdsworth said that as 12,000 consumers visited the board’s office every week it was imperative that proper quarters should be provided. The board had to provide for the future; 25 years was not long in the life of an undertaking, and it was impossible to say, at he present rate of growth, what accommodation the board would need 25 years hence. The si to being an expensive one, it had been aecided ot erect an eight-storey building and to let those portions which the board did not require for its immediate use. “Some of the ‘club critics’ have been asking why we do not go on commercial lines,” acnied Mr. tlcldsworth, “yet when we do, they want to know what the dickens we are doing’ If we returned the cost of the building to our customers in the form of a rebate over seven years it would amount to about 2s a year for each customer, an amount so small that no one would notice it.”