ELECTRIC LIGHT FOR LYTTELTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11539, 28 March 1898, Page 4

ELECTRIC LIGHT FOR LYTTELTON.

Ip the correspondent whose letter we published on Saturday has any ground for assuming that the Harbour Board would be prepared to supply Lyttelton with the electric light, the Borough Council should certainly make inquiries on the subject before committing the ratepayers to a less effective and more costly illuminant. We doubt if the Board has the power, even if it has the inclination, to enter upon an undertaking of this sort, but the matter is of so much importance to the ratepayers that it should not be dismissed without the most car-'ful consideration. The fact that a number of firms in Christchurch, where gas is charged at only 6s 84 per thousand feet, have procured electric lighting plants of their own, suggests that the people of Lyttelton, who pay 10s per thousand, might find it very much to their advantage to adopt our correspondent’s proposal. It was stated at the meeting of the Hospital Board the other day that £3OO a year would be saved at the institution under its control by the substitution of electric light for gas, and it is not very hazardous to conclude that a much larger sum would be saved by the same operation in the borough of Lyttelton. It is the obvious duty of the Council to look into this matter before entering into another contract with the local gas company.