Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1927. THE ELECTRIC AGE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 22 December 1927, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1927. THE ELECTRIC AGE.

The electric age has been a long time coming to Britain. But the announcement of the main outline of the scheme prepared for a ‘‘super power zone” in SouthEastern England brings it appreciably nearer. The scheme deals with an area of nearly 9000 .square miles, and will eventually form part of a linking-up scheme, embracing the whole of Great Britain. By every method of comparison, London, which is covered by the new scheme, has been singularly backward in the development of electricity. The multiplication of small undertakings and the high cost of power resulting from uneconomic conditions of supply have been responsible tor the slow rate of growth. The new scheme, by introducing large scale production through the elimination of such undertakings, as far as power generation is concerned should effect a revolution in power process in a few years. London has moved far slower than Paris, is far behind Chicago, and still further behind New York. Paris, after three companies had gained control over the area, showed an increase of 200 per cent in the period 1920-26, from a total of 535,000,000 units to 1,560,000,000 units. New York, already highly developed, almost doubled its output over the period 1919-26, the 1926 total being 7,100,000,000 units. Chicago has shown an even higher rate of expansion. On the other hand, London only doubled its output in six years, and tiny present figure, 1,600,000,000 units, is merely equal to that recorded in Paris," half that of Chicago, and less than a fourth of that of New York. According to the new scheme, London will have reached 6,000,000,000 units by 1940. Thus, :i Britain has lagged in electricity because she led in steam, the arrears are now beim? overtaken. The first area in which the Electricity Board began work was Central .Scotland, it has now turned to the South, and its most difficult problem. The Home Counties area is densely populated, and in its electrical supply, badly organised. There is a wide range of industries, with frequent changes caused by new developments and migration from elsewhere. The whole tendency of the moment, it is said, is for the centre of industrial gravity to move south again. Within the present scheme is comprised an area going as far north as Peterborough and Bedford, and as far south as Brighton. More than one quarter of the population of Great "Britain is included, covering the whole of the industrial south, and a great area of farm land.