ELECTRICITY V. GAS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15550, 6 March 1914, Page 9

ELECTRICITY V. GAS.

REPLY TO MR. UPTON. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS VIEWS. A vii.onors reply to the statements of the chairman of the Auckland Gas Co., unfavourably tomparing electricity with pa?. wis made at hist night's meeting cf the (' it v Council. The Mayor said that the chairman of the Gas Co. (Mr. J. H. Upton) had gone out of his way in his remarks at the annual meeting of the company, to criticise very sou-rely the Electricity Department of the City Council, referring to the council and its business in terms which certainly were not complimentary. It scmeil to the Mayor that there were in tic speech so many statements that were cltarly wrong that a reply should Oe '.wile by someone. He nad therefore, with the concurrence of tho chairman tof the Electric Committee, asked the city engineer to read Mr. Upton's statement and to reply to it. This Mr. Wyllie had done. Mr. Wyllie's reply was then r,ead by the Mayor. He said that Mr. Upton's remarks wore so unreasonable and unfair that they demanded some reply. Mr. Upton appeared to be so much troubled V the competition of the Electricity Department that' he had devoted the chief j>-iri i.f his speech to making an attack i.p.-n it. Replying to Mr. Upton's remarks regrdiiiK the lighting of the Exhibition Mr. Wyllie said the council should be very proud of the amount of electric lighting it was supplying at the Exhibition. Mr. Upton had represented the whole of the limiting as being done by gas. This was not the case. The Exhibition Committee had invited the council to tender for installing electric light and supplying current for the whole of the Exhibition. The council wao not in a position to undertake installation work and was therefore unable to tender. The Gas Co. had put in a very low price and its tender was-ac-cepted for the whole of the lighting of the Exhibition. From the beginning, however, it was clear that the principal part of the lighting would need to be electric, and the Gas Co. had applied to the council to supply it wkh2 the required power. The council had thus become subcontractors <© the Gas Co. Any visitor to the Exhibition might easily see that the a/noun t of electric lighting" quite eclipsed the gas lighting. In spite of the high price charged by the Gas Co. for current, 80 stallholders had chosen electric light instead of gas. Mr. Upton had referred to the lighting of the Domain Drive. He had said the lighting of the drive was abundant and steady. It was not steady. The light from the lamps was very variable. Continuing, Mr. Wyllie said Mr. Upton had stated thai electricity was three times as dear as gas. The best verdict was that of the council's 1500 customers, who were quite satisfied with the charges, and found electricity at least as cheap, and in many cases cheaper than gas. They would not use electricity if it was three times as dear as gas.

Mr. Upton's remarks on the hygienic head, he said, were almost too absurd to cn.ll for a reply. The superior comfort of electric light was too well known in Auckland for these remarks to be taken feeri'nislv. (hi exactly the same grounds, Mr. Upton ought to condemn daylight. There had never been lie shadow of scientific evidence in support of the statement that electric light damaged eyesight. To Ray that various cities in Europe were discarding electric light for streetlighting was incorrect..

The Mayor said he thought the statement should be published, and with that view he moved its adoption by the council. It- was a pity that Mr. Upton should have Cone .mm of his wav to talk of the council as ho had done. The citizens had practically asked I lie City Council to give them the benefit of electric light and power, and this had been. done. Mr. Upton thought, gas «as superior to electricity for lighting, (las tauscd considerable damage to good*, wallpaper, and furniture. Shopkeepers had assured him that after trying elect™ jty lh«v would not go hack to gas, end business men in offices had given him similar .-i-sur.in.es. This Was not the first tune the lias Company had assailed the City Council's electricity department. It wars unreasonable, and not quite fair, nor were such attacks in the best taste. There War, room in this city for both enterprises. The statement was adopted.