The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1921. ELECTRIC POWER.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1921. ELECTRIC POWER.

The discussion which took place at the recent meeting at Eltham relative to the prospects of obtaining an eiectric power service in that town affords another instance of the general desire which exists throughout Taranaki for this valuable convenience. Apparently the people of Eltham have lost hope of being able to obtain electric current from New Plymouth for some years to come, and as they need the commodity the meeting decided to ask the Eltham Borough Council to obtain a report on the suitability of a Dies’el plant for the generation of electric light and power. The statement made by Mr. Carman, that the New Plymouth Borough Council was completely at a loss in connection with its hydro-electric scheme, however, is misleading. The Council knows its position quite well. Admittedly it is an unfortunate position, not only as regards the estimates of the cost of extensions being so largely short of the actual expenditure that is now found to be necessary, but also in the delay caused in carrying out a work designed to be of very great service to the province. It must x 'be recognised that the Council in this matter is en-

tirely the victim of circumstances, costs having risen so tremendously, the engineers* estimates being so tremendously astray, and money being so difficult to obtain, the Government having withheld consent to the Council paying the market rate'Tor money that was offered before the stringency occurred. The Council has nothing to thank the Government for in connection with the efforts to develop its hydro-electric resources, for —and we regret to say it—everything that snuld be done to hamper and delay the work was dobs. Had the Council ra*<vad a

fair run, the Government officials facilitating operations and helping the Council to take advantage of the money when it was - available, the position would have been vastly different to-day. It is manifest that New Plymouth cannot extend its lines beyond Inglewood. The extension of the lines to Eltham—and even to Patea—could very well form part of the Government’s scheme, and this has all along been urged by the New Plymouth Council, so that later on Taranaki could be linked up with the big Government hydro-electric scheme. Meantime New Plymouth could supply the province with power, if monejr could be found with which to further develop the present hydro-electric resources. That is the difficulty. How it is to be overcome is a problem that only the future can solve. Meantime the Council is doing everything it possibly can to push on with the work, for the demands for the current are ever increasing, and difficult to meet. The want of electric current in Eltham is, as Mr Wilkinson said, a great handicap, and its installation as soon as possible should prove of great service to the town, without interfering with the usefulness of the gas supply. There is room for both. But whatever is done should be arranged to fit in with first the -New Plymouth hydro-electric scheme, and next the Government scheme. The first can be made available as soon as the Government erects the transmission lines and the finance can be obtained for carrying out the scheme in its entirety.