D.—l.

The 60 " causes " assigned by reporting authorities as scheduled above are many and varied. It is quite possible that different reporting authorities have different ways of expressing the same thing, as, for instance, " wires contacting " may be synonymous with " short circuit," or, to take another instance, " span breaks " with " overstress " or " joint failure." It is hoped that the publication of this table will be of some interest to supply authority engineers in general. As regards broken poles, 406 instances were reported for the year, of which 239, or 58-8 per cent., were New Zealand blue-gum. For 1938 the total number of broken poles reported was 323, and it is still evident that electricsupply authorities who experimented with New Zealand blue-gum and nondescript Australian hardwoods during the past decade are now being called upon to make replacements sooner than the anticipated life of fifteen years for poles used on distribution lines.

Actual Mileages and Sizes of Overhead Conductors in use at 31st March, 1939.

No returns of conductor mileages received from Auckland and Christchurck.

103

copper. Aluminium. «~ed Ga.van.zed Copperweld . Steered Bronze bize of Total Conductors — 1 Break(8 ' W ' 6,) ' B S k " MUos. ~ Miles. |~ Miles. Mi.es. Ml.es. Break- <*«• 7/22 .. 12 3 3 7/20 .. 6,786 309 309 7/18 .. 14,264 633 633 7/17 .. 3,296 37 37 7/16 .. 26,458 266 49 .. 301 3 103 .. 8 .. 177 269 7/15 .. 110 4 259 4 7/14 13,470 74 24 8 19 .. 7 1,087 82 7/13 .. 1,210 1 .. .. 3 .. 4 163 1 7/12 .. 645 .. 152 1 11 18 .. 30 1 7/11 .. 4 73 7/10 .. 66 .. 37 51 7/9 .. 640 .. 3 .. 5 ; 7/8 2 19/18 .. 407 14 14 19/17 .. 692 7 7 19/16 .. 1,849 10 10 19/15 .. 201 2 2 19/14 .. 726 3 3 19/13 .. 3,110 19/12 .. 832 2 19/10 .. .. .. 1 37/16 .. 67 .. .. 37/15 .. 403 37/14 .. 120 37/13 .. 23 37/12 .. 77 227 66/13 .. 2 12 .. .. 2,403 119 .. .. 2 .. 86 .. 12 119 11 .. .. 3 10 .. .. 9,399 403 .. 2 112 1 222 .. 423 12 .. .. 30 .. 418 8 .. .. 13,773 190 .. .. 5,482 43 5,326 58 733 2 283 7 .. .. 759 12 290 .. 92 12 6 .. .. 288 3 .. .. 127 .. 147 .. 165 7 10 5 .. 7 4 .. .. 593 79 .. 2 2 .. .. 65 .. .. 0 .. .. 74 2/0 10 3 59 3 3/0 .. 4 399 3/12 .. 155 1 14 .. 9 1 3/11 3 3/10 .. 27 .. 3 3/9 4 3/8 4 1 1 4/16 .. 13 4/14 253 1 1 5/14 210 1 1 6/-144 .. .. 19 2 .. .. 2 7/-167 639 Miscellaneous 83 11 161 2 .. .. 2 .. 12 .. 58 .. .. .. 13 Telephone-wires 195 .. .. .. 1,060 .. 906 .. 2,915 Totals .. 103,3342,102 465 17 7,596 49 7,093 58 4,366 21 3,243 2 30 .. 2,249 > > > Grand total, 126,097 miles.