ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 47, 25 October 1913, Page 2

ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

COMPANY’S COUNTY SCHEME. j : f ATTITUDE'OF THE BORGCCH. ■■ » v. ■’ ;/, t j i • --—— Following is the. fnjl text'of thejrc;.»prt of t,hO| Borough; solid tor (Mn T. i Fookcs) i on; the matter of thl'j • iifenfse 'proposed td he is?p,qd ,tO| th|’ i\l6cfrichl l SjupplV Company, enabling '-hem to supply current in Stratford bounty: _ : Following on my recent interview vith His Worship the Mayor and the hairman of your committee, I now, it their request, beg to furnish you with my written opinion upon the draf, jf the proposed; license ~to ,\)e 5 issped, (by.ithe*. Public iVVorhsr. Department of, bhe Government, authorising,fho,.Strata YOVd" Elecd-icdl ' Supply Company t,O. • ufje water from the Patea. river for. the mu-pose of generating electricity;, and '■o erect electric lines .within the Boiv oiigh of Stratford and the County oi Stratford, pursuant to and in terms of the provisions ok’ section 5 of the “Pub lie Works Amendment Act, 1908” and section 2 of the ‘ ‘Public Works Amendment Act, 1911.”

By way of introduction T would point out that since the year 1903 the r.olo right to use water in lakes, falls, •rivers or streams for electrical pur poses has become vested in the Crown, and by the “Public Works Act, 1908” and subsequent . amendments the Crown has obtained the solo right to grant licenses to any person or body corporate to use water from any fall*, river, stream or other source for the purpose of generating electricity for electric light, mechanical power or other uses, and to exercise any of the powers and authorities specified in that behalf in the said Act and the amendments thereof. Such licenses may (inter alia) confer upon the licensees the right to enter upon any road, railway or other land, whether vested in or Occupied by. the Crown or any other person or body corpora, ate, and there to construct, erect, lay down, maintain, renew or repair all such cables, wires, and other things as are required for the transmission of electricity- between the fall, river, stream, or other source aforesaid and opy place to which the licensees are authorised to transmit electricity in pursuance of their licenses. Such licenses shall contain such provisions as the Oovernor thinks fit determining the maximum charges which the licensees may make for the sale or supply of electricity in pursuance of the license, and may impose upon the licensees the duty of,selling or supplying electricity to the public or to any portion of the public. By the provisions of the said Act and its amendments, numerous other powers, provisions andj.conditions may bo inserted in licenses granted as aforesaid, which are too lengthy to he here sot out, hut cj\ii ho readily ascertained by reference to the Act and its amendments., It will ho observed that the whole of the provisions of the Act above referred to refer to the grant by the Crown of licenses authorising the use of “water” for electrical purposes, and all other rights conferred’ upon the licensees are deemed incidental thereto. The use of any other power than water by the licensees, even as an auxiliary power, does not appear to Ije contemplated, although, apparently. it is not prohibited.' The policy of the statutes seems to he to place exclusively in the hands of the Government the sale and disposal of the water-power of the country, os-

pecially for electrical purposes, but incidental thereto it seems to have gone much further by practically overriding the local authorities, uho hitherto were generally given 'the right of imposing the terms and conditions upon which i the, public and private lighting within their respective jurisdictions were undertaken, and also the terms and conditions upon which poles, wires, etc., were erected and maintained upon their public streets and places. /

Dealing with the .proposed license to lie issued to the Stratford Electrical Supply Company, it seems to me that this conflicts'witlv and;to a ,yery large extent renders nugatory the provisions of the “Stratford Electrical Lighting Act,, 1898,” and the deed of covenant of September Ist, 1899, entered into by the Mayor, Councillors., and Burgesses of Stratford with the Company. In the first place, the area of supply? over which the Company is empowered to extend its operations under its enabling Act is restricted to a radius of three miles from the Stratford Post Office, whilst under the proposed license the area of supply is " extended so as to embrace the whole of the Borough of Stratford and the County of Stratford. Then, again, under the deed of covenant the Company’s rights, so far at least as the Borough is concerned, terminate on September 13th, 1919,' whereas under th,o proposed license 1 the 1 Company’s rights both \Vithin the 'Borough and the County are extended to forty-two year:; from the 1 date of’the license.

This; moans that the Company will bo enabled, if tho license is granted, to carry on its operations for 42 yea is from date in defiance of tho Council and as a direct competitor with' tho Council in any lighting scheme that the Council; may desire hereafter to undertake. The Cfouncil will also have no power whatever over the Company in regard to compelling the Company to supply electrical energy up f-o tho required . standard, except so far as tho Government may be induced to keep the Company up to the mark. It will doubtless bo pointed out that by section 9 of the “Stratford. Electric Lighting Act” the local authority or authorities within the area of supply may at any time after September 1.3 th,, 1908, upon giyitfgjsix calendar months’- previous, notice in writing of its or their intention in that behalf, require the Company, to sell to such local authority or authorities the Company’s undertaking, upon the. terms thcre.ip, qijrwi,-in, guclyeyent '<■ is provided by clause 83 of the proposed license that the price to-be p»dd by such local authority shall not lujnde any sum for the licensees’ goodwill, undey tjie ft will, 1 however, bp inoted that the proposed license deed ‘not 'iii lir.,df confer upon..the local, authority any power of purchase of the Company’s undertaking, and in view of the fact that the ..rights proposed to bo granted to the •Company *by the license are altogether apart and-dis-tinct from the right conferred upon t-’.io Company by ‘ ‘The ( Stt<atfopd-<Elecv ■hrical Lighting Act, 1898” and the above Mentioned, deed i of covenant and (have no connection therewith, and further, in view of jthe i fact that the area of supply uudey the license is l iferent from the area of supply under the Act and deed off covenant, it js at least questionable whether the focal authority or local authorities’ right of purchase under the Act would dill subsist and bo .operative, at any I rate after the 13th September, 1919;-

In any case, now that the Stratford County Council are becoming involved in the matter with the Stratford Borough Council, and the . Company’s operations in the Borough and the County are practically ono,.undertaking it renders the position most etmbarrassing so far as the exercise of the suggested right of purchase', by both or either of the local authorities is concerned. So much so that the exercise of the said right of -pin-chase by both or either of the local authorities would probably be found to he wholly impracticable. For the above reasons I am of opinion that the issue ; by the Public Works Department of the proposed license to the Stratford Flectric'al Supply Company, Ltd., is entirely opposed to the interests of the Borough of Stratford, and every effort should lie made to prevent the issue of- the said license in its present farm at any rate,-. It might bo pointed out to tlio Government that it is apprehended from past experience that the Council will probably find the M ater-power to ho derived from th.o f'atea River quite inadequate for its purpose, and that the Company 1 will, as hitherto, hiwce to rely upon the auxiliary power derived from its Diesel engine. It may ho reasonably assumed that the Government contemplate that the Company will use' the water-power only, for this is the only power from which the Government will derive any revenue for the rights it is conferring upon the Company. There would appear to be nothing to prevent the Company Dam almost ceasing to use the waterpower at any time and using the rival. 1 power, in which case the Crown would lose its revenue.

It would also ho advisable if a copy of the above-mentioned deed of covenant of September }, 1899. between the Corporation and the Company wore sent to the Government for pei usal, so that they may thoroughly understand the position, }or doubtless they have not seen the said deed of covenant, and may not even be aware of its existence.