ELECTRICITY CHARGES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1927, Page 8

ELECTRICITY CHARGES

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I think your correspondent, "A Square Deal," whose letter appeared in last Tuesday's issue of the "Evening Post," is deserving of the thanks of the community for his letter anent the City Council's charges for electricity. I quite agree with him that the present system is unjust. The Electric Light Department's official explanation is very lame; it is anything but convincing. The service in each case is undoubtedly the same, bo matter .whether the current supplied passes through a cooker, a radiator, or a light bulb; and, as the cost to the council is the same, there is no justification for one user being asked to pay half as much again as another. To say that, because very few protect* are received, the majority of users arc satisfied is a fallacy. It only goes to show, Sir, how long-suffering ire are. We take a lot lying down, either because we are too apathetic' or are afraid to raise our voices in protest against the powers that be; perhaps the majority fancy it is too much like flogging a dead horse—it would not get them anywhere. Now, Sir, as the cost of production to the council is the same, no matter for what purpose the current is supplied, what concern can it be of the council whether it is used for cooking or lighting? It would be good business oa the council's part to encourage the use of electricity in the home and leave it to the consumer to apply it to whatever purpose he likes. Thp" one sure way to encourage the use of electric cookers, which the council professes it wishes to do, is to make the price of current sufficiently attractive to induce the average householder to go to the initial expense of installing an electric range, which is no small item. I would throw out the suggestion that the council revert to the original initial charge of Od per unit and make the minimum rate the only rate, xegardless of the number of rooms in a person's house, with a reduced rate after a certain number of units have been consumed, but in Heaven's name let ifc be the same to everybody. This, lam certain, would popularise the use Of electric cookers and, naturally, increase the profits of the Electric Light Department, which are even now not inconsiderable.—l am, etc., OA TE 03? THE DISSATISFIED