Page:Harnessing the Waihopai.pdf/4

Page Two would-be consumers’ premises, the consumers repaying the Board by instalments spread over an extended period. The canvassers have met with a fair measure of success in their efforts, and the Board’s scheme of finance for consumers has been fairly freely availed of, so that there are already over a thousand consumers all ready to-day to use electricity from the instant it is made available.

But, satisfactory though this may seem at first glance, the Board is still a long way short of the number of consumers requisite to place the scheme on an immediately payable basis. A revenue of something over £35,000 a year has to be earned to make Waihopai pay, and at least 2000 consumers will have to be linked up before this objective can be attained. The Board, therefore, urges on the ratepayers the necessity for their active co-operation, and desires to impress upon them that it is their co-operative scheme, and that it is in their direct interest to help it to pay its way. The ratepayers can co-operate with the Board by using electricity themselves and by urging others to do likewise. There is plenty of current available for the whole of the province; but, in the early stages of the scheme, considerably more than half of it will be going to waste. In other words, it would cost the Board no more to produce the 1000 k.w. of which Waihopai is capable in its present stage of development than to produce the comparatively small amount of electricity which will be required from to-day.

The probable revenue which the Board will obtain from the sale of current has been carefully investigated by means of an actual survey of the whole district, wherein every farm has been located and placed on a map, and every house and factory counted and considered. It was ascertained that there were some 3009 houses in the district, to say nothing of numerous factories and workshops where power will be required; and also disregarding the use of electricity for milking machines, shearing machines, etc. There is quite obviously a good market for the sale of the electrical energy produced, and the Board is asking for the active co-operation of each and every ratepayer, it being quite clear that that is all that is required to make the scheme a financial success.

The first areas to be connected up with the scheme are the Borough of Blenheim and the districts lying between Blenheim and the source of supply at Benopai, and these areas, being closely settled, are expected to bring in profits almost at once. A transmission line is now being run to the Awatere districts, and in due course the Pelorus Valley, the Wairau Valley, the Picton Road district, and all other parts of the province within the scope of the scheme will be linked up. If in any district it is found that the prospective demand for current is not sufficient to warrant running a line, the districts will uot be reticulated until such time as the Board is satisfied that the line can be made to pay, and in some cases — notably in the Awatere — the Board has required guarantees from groups of settlers that they will use sufficient energy to make the reticulation of their areas a payable proposition. There is authority, under the Electric Power Boards Act, for the Board to levy a rate on those non-consumers who may have the opportunity of using electricity, but will not avail themselves of it. However, it is not thought that it will be necessary to exercise this authority in Marlborough, as all the indications are that once electricity is switched on in the various districts, farmers and others will be only too willing to take advantage of it.