1918.] The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 
17 
capacity is now on order, but owing to war conditions it has been found 
impossible to get delivery of the steel for building the necessary pipe-line. 
The rising prices of coal and gas have stimulated the demand, and in the 
meantime a definite restriction has had to be imposed so far as the con¬ 
sumers of day power are concerned. 
For the first year, as in all new departures of this kind, the demand 
did not increase rapidly. The Christchurch City supply was changed over 
at once, giving a load of 1,000 kilowatts on the water-power plant from the 
first day of operation. The peak load on the 31st March, 1916, was only 
Fig. 2.—Daily load-curves. 
1,350 kilowatts, and the output for the year 4,960,250 units. The first 
six months after the commencement of supply was occupied in negotiating 
contracts for the supply of power with various power-users, and after that 
it took several months longer to install the necessary motors and wiring. 
But in April, 1916, the load began to go up rapidly, as the graph in fig. 1 
shows, and by March, 1917, it reached the full capacity of the installed 
plant'—viz., 4,500 kilowatts—the output for the second year of operation 
being 14,224,960 units, with a corresponding reduction in the cost per unit. 
For the first few months the lighting load exceeded the power load, 
but now that the larger factories have been converted to electric driving 
the day load'—8 a.m. to 5 p.m.—considerably exceeds the evening lighting 
2—Science. 
