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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5915, 21 August 1890, Page 2

tevKEY year tlicro is a diuuuFPion in ihe Muuieipul Council on tlio subject of tlio iclutivci merits of gas imJ. electricity for street lighting. Every your precisely tlio KiHUO argument:) .irci ii.-cd. Thoso iv favor of tleotricjity urt t<> tins i-il'ect that gas is ilcitr tho lii>li tiu.'T !>'*""% iitid that this Gas Company, \v!ii!o maUini; largo profits, aro illiberal. These in i'iivur of gas say that the estimates of the cost of ..-lectrioity aro as unroii:! tile :'.s tlio litrhtj , - 1 .!.', :;i:d thufc iv discard- "":.» tlio Corporation would bo hiking a lertVi;: t.'io d;.rlc. ''•-> l'->J'-g»s tho Municipal Council is hovi'viiiK i;<;tv.-u'ii two opinions wo l'uil to siio that it can to bo more liberally treated by the Gas Company. Tho

Council, it appears, is quite willing to commit the town for all time to the uncertainty of electric lighting , , while it hesitates to enter-upon a oontraot for five years for tho supply of gas, about which there is no uncertainty. Or. Cohen very truly stated last night electric lighting is in its infancy, and he pointed out how unsatisfactory it had proved to be at Wellington. In the course of the next five or ten years, it may he that electric lighting will_ be vastly improved and cheapened, and in view of that prospect it would be as well to wait. His Worship the Mayor hns a not unnatural leaning towards the electric light, but really the whole borough cannot be expected to swallow everything that a travelling agent of a 'company hits to say in its favor. The example of Wellington should bo quite sufficient for the, ratepayers of Napier to resolve to bid»-a-wee': to pay for what they aro euro to get, rather thau pay for a pretty null costly experiment.

Tt ia freely talked about in Napier that tho freight of grain from this port to London ia 40s per ton; fromTituaru 30s; from Ljttelton 28s. We hare been asked to call attention to these differences, but we feel disquiilified from doing , so till we obtain moro information on the subject. We do not knoiv, in fact, whether the prices mentioned are coireot, or merely relate to particular cargoes at nil exceptional time of tho year. One reason why there should bo some difference in the prices may be that botli Lyttelton and Timaru firs essentially grain ports, whereas Napier is not. The only grain sent from here would be comparatively small parcels, no ship having , ever been loaded up from Napier with that description of cargo Nevertheless the subject is worth enquiring into. There is another report circulating in, respect of freights that is of very muah moro importance to us, which is to the effect that the freight and charges on frozen nioat shipped at Lyttelton are no leas than 5a per carcass lower than thoy are at Napior. Wo can hardly credit this, but we have it from a correspondent who outrht to know what he is talking about. We mention these reports in the hope of causing searching enquiry into their truth, and, if they have any foundation in fact, those interested would do well to find out why this portshould be placed at such a disadvantage. The Chamber of Commerco meets' tomorrow, when we trust this matter vill'be brought up, for if there he no foundation for what is so freely being talked about the sooner such false reports are contradicted the better.