D—4

Telephone- and main-line insulator units on tlie Masterton-Mount Bruce section that had been damaged by rifle-fire were changed, Tower earth tests were taken. Woodville-Napier (East and West). —The maintenance gang commenced the overhaul of the west line, working from Woodville Substation northwards. Poles on the west line are being tested. During August an outage on the east line was caused by the linemen burning gorse under the line. The cable was pitted for approximately 12 ft. on the yellow and red phases. A general inspection for wear was carried out of U bolts, pins, hanger brackets, and hooks. Napier-Tuai (East and West). —Patrols and general maintenance of this line have been satisfactory. As on the Woodville-Napier lines, inspections for wear of U bolts, &c., were carried out. Earth testing of towers was commenced. (b) 50 kV. Lines Henderson-Takapuna.—Hay being blown into the line or carried by a bird resulted in a flashover, and the subsequent reclosing for test burnt the remaining two phases through, and set fire to a stack of baled hay, destroying 1,000 bales. Takapuna-Belmont.—Defence purposes no longer called for a deviation of this line and the affected portion was rebuilt on the original route. Shags flying into this line resulted in tripping on at least two occasions. Maungatapere-Kaitaia.—During a "shutdown of this line a 6 ft. length of wire was found hanging across one phase. Tuai-Gisborne.—This line is in the process of being overhauled and refitted. Lightning flashovers were found to have occurred during the previous summer at eight poles and also at the Ruakituri switch structure. An outage occurred on the 15th July when the copper braid on the air-break switch at Ruakituri burnt through. The switch had recently been hit by lightning, and it was surmised that the braid was in the path of the lightning, which weakened it, the ultimate failure being due to fusing. A double interruption on 13th August, 1946, to the G-isborne supply was due to a broken insulator on the east line and to an insulator becoming unhooked. Heavy rain and flooding caused slips which necessitated a deviation of line. Damaged cable on the east line was cut and replaced. Tuai-Wairoa.—A piece of cable apparently damaged by lightning was replaced. Ngongotaha-Edgecumbe.—The 7/13 steel conductors in the sulphur area at Tikitere were replaced by copper conductors owing to corrosion. Aluminium wire has been ordered for this section of the line. (c) 11 kV. Lines The Horahora-Leamington double-circuit line was connected to Karapiro station and supply to the Cambridge area was changed over from Horahora to Karapiro on 29th March, 1947. The old section from Horahora was dismantled with the exception of the portion from pole 5 to pole 152 which still supplies some Power Board consumers via an extension connected to a Matamata feeder. The Taumarunui-Manunui line was taken over by the King-country Electric-power Board on Ist November, 1946. 4. Communications The Takapuna-Belmont supervisory system continued to give satisfactory service and, apart from routine maintenance, no major faults developed. A new 50 v. battery was installed for supply, independent of the station battery.

12