IF POWER FAILED...

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1005, 23 June 1930, Page 1

IF POWER FAILED...

FAITH IN KINGS WHARF BY MANUFACTURERS FEW STAND-BY PLANTS If electric power suddenly failed in Auckland . . . The picture would be a rather dismal one. Industry would be crippled, transport would be hampered and thousands of people would be thrown out of work. Fortunately there is little or jio likelihood of this happening. Sufficient power can be generated from the King’s Wharf station to supply ail needs at present and the Power Board is taking all precautions to maintain that supply. Most of the largest manufacturers in Auckland are entirely dependent on electric power to run their plant and machines. Some discarded their steam plants when the supply of power from Arapuni seemed certain. Now several of the City firms are considering the installation of standby plants, but the general feeling is that King’s Wharf will continue to be a safe source of supply. They intend to wait until the final report is available from the engineers concerning Arapuni and the measures to be taken to combat the present trouble. Members of the Auckland Manufacturers’ Association have been circularised asking them to co-operate with the Power Board in minimising the current load and restricting the power when the demand for supply is

greatest. The Power Board's first thought will be for the essential industries. If anything did happen to lessen the supply of power these would receive first consideration. The Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Company is not altogether dependent on electric power, as it has its own steam plant. This business is too vital to leave anything to chance. For in- i stance, more than one-sixth of the value of the total exports of New Zealand goes through 'the company’s stores. Butter, cheese, meat, fruit aud other produce is kept in the stores before being shipped, and any failure to maintain the right degree of temperature would mean the destruction of immense quantities of the Dominion's exports. Power for the Westfield Freezing Works, as for most of the others in the province, is generated by a steam plant on the spot. USE ON WATERFRONT The Harbour Board would be in a difficult position without a continuous supply of electric-power. All cranes would be useless, and the port lights on the wharves would be out of commission. Machines which do the repairs on vessels in port would not be available. It would still be possible to load and unload cargo with the machinery carried on each vessel, but with the assistance of the Harbour Board’s cranes this work is done in half the time. Manufacturers would he severely restricted ; f power failed. For in j stance John Court, Limited, depend® ! entirely on the city power. The ; firm has no emergency plant and the 300 people employed in its manufacturing business alone would be out of work. All the machines are run with electricity. In the main store itself lifts would cease working—as in every other store and block r-f offices throughout the city. Ambler and Company is another cits’ firm which has no other power except electricity. Here again, as with similar firms, the situation would be serious and 120 to ISO employees would find themselves out of work. Orders to which the firm is committed for the rest of the year could not be met. So it goes on. Such firms as Thompson and Hills, Palmer, Collins and Whittaker, the Farmers’ Trading Company, would find themselves almost at a standstill as far as manufacturing was concerned. But everybody is remarkably cheerful. No one imagines for a moment that King's Wharf station will “let them down.”