ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11507, 1 October 1915, Page 7

ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

SPREYDON BOROUGH COUNCIL'S: LOAN PROPOSAL CURRENT FROM CITY COUNCIL. A public mooting wan hold ;it the Reckenhum Hal!, Somcrfield Street, last evening, to discuss t.!jo Spreydon Borough Council's proposal to raise a loan of £OOOO for r"tk:ii!nti»y the borough tor electrical .street awl household lighting, upon which a, poll wiJL bo taken on October LI next. The Mayor ■>l Spreydon (Mr W. H. Winsor) presided", and there was an at tendance of about twenty-live. Tlie chairman said that though the Gas Company had displayed commendable enterprise in leticulating many streets in thn borough, the council felt that it was iime tlx; community owned its own lighting facilities. 'l'ho electricity supply from Lake Coleridge now ma do this possibly, and <>, proposal to take advantage of that supply would shortly he. submitted to the ratepayers at, a poll. Councillor A. Man hire said that if the loan proposal were defeated the council would be friend with an expenditure next year of £IOOO to £ISOO on absolutely necessary street lighting by gas:, and that expenditure would bo money waited, because the borough was certain eventually to adopt; an electric?! scheme. Tho profits on gas lighting would go to the Gas Company. The saving on electric lighting would bo saved by tho ratepayers And current, consumers. . Tho electric lighting proposal provided the only reasonably cheap method of lighting the outlying portions of the borough. Councillor G, H. Rtidd dealt with tho history of the Lake Coleridge scheme, and the advantages possessed by electricity over gas and oil «s an jlluminant, and a source of heat and power. It was proposed by the council to raise a loan of £6OOO at o per cent, with a li per cent allowance for sinking fundIt was proposed to replace the fortyone gas lamps in the borough with 110 electric lamps of 1,00 c.p. Gas lamps cost £1 a year, the elective lamps would cost only £3 u year. The chairman v.;*id that tho loan was to be raised for reticulation purposes. The borough engineer estimated the expenditure, on reticulation for both private and street lighting as £5500. The margin of £SOO would allow the council to help ratepayers who wanted to pay for their installations by instalments. The City Council would supply the current, the cost to the Borough Council, includimr all charges, _ for the first year being estimated at £7{>s. The rate charged to consumers would be a flat rate of Gd per unit. The Public Works Department, offered current to the Borough Council at IJd per unit, hut tho City Council was selling it at I l-3d iter unit. It was estimated that the horotigh\s scheme, on the first year, would show a debit balance oi £163. 6s (id, the estimated expenditure being £795, and the estimated receipts from private consumers £632, As against this debit, the item of £250 per annum for gas street lighting would not he incurred, As the ruimber of householders connected with tho supply increased the cost of street lighting would he decreased by tho amount of tho extra profit on private lighting, literate to be struck in resneet of the loan was 7-I6d in tho £. equal to 3s 8d per £IOO. Tho full rate would lie struck the iSrst year, but later a reduction might he made. When tho scheme was on a profit-making basis, rates on unimproved properties would.be reduced. As a guide to the cost of household lighting, the speaker quoted the case of a Dunedin friend of his, who paid 5d per unit for current, had eight lighting points fitted to his house, used his lights liberally and paid 2s Gd per mouth. Another Dunedin friend had an electric stove, a big affair, capable | of doing household cooking, which cost ! 1b a week for current. The cost of pumping household water with a electric motor was about Id per 550 gallons. Ho urged tho ratepayers to vote for tho loan proposals. After questions had been Answered, the meeting closed with votes of thanks to tho speakers.