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Timaru Herald, Volume LXXX, Issue 12351, 19 April 1904, Page 2

If tlio Borough Council aie seriously considering the question of an electric installation for Timaru they should endeavour to obtain accurate information as to how such installations have succeeded' wherever they have been established in the colony, and they might with advantage push their enquiries even further afield. Conditions differ materially in the various centres, and what may have been found to pay handsomely in one place might prove a losing speculation in another. We are aware that some enquiries have been set on foot, but we can scarcely think that enough ha; been done in that direction. About one point in particular there should be no doubt whatever. The Council should not be led away by the plausible stoiies o f companies' or individuals wbo> may piofess themselves ready to make the insinuation on the most reasonable terms—terms which wouM lower the cost of lighting in a very substantial d'egiee. Neither companies nor individuals work for nothing. They are not philanthropists ; their object is to make profit. But any profit that is to be made by setting up an electric installation in the borough should go into the municipal treasury. In other words the municipality should own the installation, and do the best with it in the inletests of the ratepayers. If the suggested installation cannot be placed on that footing the Borough Council had muoh better drop th* idM «ltog«Wwr, From IU-tyri

we can. learn on the subject it appears that a start could be made on a very modest, not to say humble scale. The installation could commence with a surprisingly small number of lights. It may be that at the outset there would be a small loss, but if the light proved satisfactory the number of lights would speedily increase, and as the cost of production would not increase iu proportion, the loss would soon be turned into a profit, which would grow larger as the yeans went by. Such has been the experience in many places, but not in . all. As we before remarked, conditions vary in the different centres, besides which much depends on the management. Bad management would almost certainly lead to loss. We are neither opposing nor favouring an electrical installation, but merely insisting that there should: be the fullest enquiry, and that the installation if determined on should be wholly the property of the municipality.