MUNICIPAL LIGHTING.

Waipa Post, Volume V, Issue 216, 30 May 1913, Page 2

MUNICIPAL LIGHTING.

IT will be remembered that at the time of the authorisation of the loans for water supply and street improvements, ratepayers also carried a poll empowering the Town Board to borrow £B,OOO for the purpose of installing a municipal coal gas plant at Te Awamutu. Immediately the result of this poll was announced, a petition was prepared and lodged at the Board’s offices urging that the system of lighting be reconsidered and settingforward the advisability of the introduction of electricity for lighting, power and heating purposes. As a result of this petition the Board, in its endeavour to bring about the installation of that system which will prove to be of most general use and convenience, has obtained further reports on lighting systems. That ratepayers may, before expressing an opinion, have the fullest and most authentic information at their disposal, these carefully compiled reports have been printed, it being the intention to forward one to each voter. These printed reports will be issued in the course of the next few days and it behoves one and all untrammelled by petty prejudices—to compare the merits of each of the three systems, and arrive at a decision calculated to be in the best interests of the community. To do so will be to take reasonable advantage of the opportunities the publishing of these reports offer. The Board is to be commended for its action in making public the information on the three various public lighting systems obtained —coal gas, electricity, and acetylene—for by so doing it has opened the way for the fullest possible consideration, the result of which should be the n stallation of a lighting plant—not as being the only thing offering, but that which is deemed to be the most suitable by comparison. That there is practically a unanimous opinion in favour of a municipal lighting system is beyond dispute, this fact having been very clearly demonstrated at the former poll of ratepayers. This being so, there is no occasion to consider the pessimist who may perchance consider this a fitting opportunity to endeavour to condemn lighting proposals. The question practically resolves itself into the choice between proceeding with the installation of the authorised coal gas system or the taking of another poll and the authorisation of a loan for the installation of an electric lighting plant. It is our intention to make further reference to the question of public lighting in a future issue. At the present juncture, it is to be hoped that every ratepayer will, on receipt of the reports, make careful comparison of the commercial value and general utility of each of the three systems submitted so that, at the ratepayers’ meeting to be held, the Board may obtain an indication of what is most favoured, so that finality so far as the loans for lighting are concerned, may soon be arrived at.