THE ELECTRIC LIGHT CONTRACT.

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 9320, 15 June 1891, Page 4

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT CONTRACT.

TO TDK EDITOR. Sir, —I cannot lay claim to all the amiable qualities with which you credit me in your issue of to day. My modesty certainly compels me, as & rule, to read through an Act of Parliament before I criticise it, and herein I am evidently at a disadvantage compared with Iho writer of your leading article of this morning. May I ask him, if it is not beneath his notice, to take the trouble to read my Bill Aa many of the questions upon which ho has touched remain fop settlement between the Corporation and myaelf, it would ill become me, who have received nothing but courtesy from the City Council, to notice his remarks upou them hero. I will, therefore reserve my reply to such of his observations as relate to tho Public Electric Light Installation until the Corporation and myself are completely at one upon the subject.

As regards the proposed BUI, however, my hands are free, and aa your editorial contains several serious misstatements, 1 am sure yon will be anxious to correct them at once.

1. It is untrue that I ask for ** rights and power io perpetuity to supply electric energy to private consumers at one shilling per unit," or at any other rate whatever. Such a demand would indeed be preposterous. In tho Act which I am promoting I ark for no monopoly, I ask for no perpetuity, I ask for no tariff or minimum price. I merely ark Parliament, upou tho New Zealand Electrical Syndicate, Limited, (which, by the way, is not a German Company, but an English Company, composed principally of Zealand merchants), erecting a central station in Wellington, to allow us to supply thecitizeos with electricity by meter or by contract, as tho consumer may require. The Bill which I propose Is a replica, word lor word, of the Bills which the Parliament at Homo grants by tho score every session. The passage in it to which you have devoted so much attention is really a restrictive clause inserted in the interest of the public, and fixing the maximum price which the Company may charge under any circumstances whatever. Parliament thereby stipulates that, no matter what may be the price of coal, of copper, or of anything else, if it gives its consent to the Bill the Company shall be bound to supply energy to every citizen who asks for it, and shall not charge anyone more than one shilling per electrical unit. Teupence per unit is a common maximum charge to reserve in England, being equivalent to about 8s per 1000 ft of gas. One shilling per unit is therefor© equivalent to 9a 8d or thereabouts. Of course the charges actually made by the companies vary in this matter, as In everything else, in accordance with the law of supply and demand, but in the case of eleotrioal supply Parliament has thought it wise to restrict the variation within limits aa above mentioned. This explanation, 1 think, disposes of your observations as to the price intended to be charged for energy. 2. 1 entirely agree with you in tho opinion that water and lighting should be in (he hands of the municipality. But, air, although your municipality has statutory power to supply the electric light to private consumers, it is not disposed at present to undertake the work. I have on more than one occasion suggested that the Corporation sbonld do the lighting and let my Company, act as its contractors, but the suggestion has not commended itself to the authorities. Meanwhile a large number of citizens are anxious to be supplied with the electric light ; and surely if my Company is prepared to supply it at its own risk, the citizens of an important and growing capital, such as this is, are entitled to have it if they want it. The power to supply electricity themselves will not be taken from the Municipality by the passing of any Bill, and if any Company fail to supply the public with it at a reasonable rate, or if the supply bo inferior in quality or otherwise not satisfactory, the Corporation can either put down its own plant and compete with us, or at the end of 21 years can, upon terms which have appeared fair to the Imperial Parliament, compel us to sell our undertaking to them as a going concern, and supply the light thenceforth themselves. I am therefore neither asking for a monopoly nor a perpetuity. 3. One word as to yoar remarks about wbatyou call the '‘Vertical stripes" in our bmp glasses. Immediately opposite your publishing office is a lamp which has no “ vertical stripes ” about it; and there is another and a different sort of lamp at the end of Panama street, also withoat any “vertical stripes;" aud In a few days I hope to have a third experimental lamp erected on Lambton quay. When I have satisfied myself from these experiments which is the best , form of lamp, I intend to use it for the public lighting, and to remove the “ vertically striped” lamp-glasses, which I agree with you in considering “ a blunder. 1 But, sir, why this sudden and virulent attack upon a public installation, which is certainly not inferior to what it was when first started about two years ago, and how can you reconcile it with what you wrote on Saturday, the 13th July, 1889, when you said—“ The electric lighting of the city of Wellington was completed last week. The installation can only be classified as thorough success, and Wellington now 00. copies the proud position of being the bestlighted city in the whole of the colonies.’* Tempura mutantur, nos et mutamar in illls.—l am, etc., D. de Castro. Queen’s Chambers, Wellington, June 13, 1891.