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reticulate, and will be enabled to make your own retail profit." If we do that it will require very much less expenditure on our part 85. Assuming that you have to reticulate twenty-two districts, what will that cost? —That is absolutely impossible to ascertain now You have to get the mileage of the streets and the number of lamps required. 86. Have you done that?—To a certain extent. 87. Can you give the Committee any idea of how much capital you will require to do that?- • 1 cannot. There is no estimate prepared. 88. You have told us that your nominal capital is £100,000 ?—Yes. 89. And your actual capital is £33,000? —Yes. 90. You could not do it with that? -No. 91. Can you instal your 6,000-horse power, which is to produce this enormous revenue, and reticulate these twenty-two districts for £100,000? —No. 92. Could you do it with £200,000 or £300,000?— It is a question of policy as to whether the suburban towns shall do it or not. In other places some towns do and some do not. Our first step is to obtain the necessary parliamentary power. 93. The first step is to obtain the necessary capital?—We shall look to our capital, Mr. MacGregor. 94. You have told us your probable gross revenue: can you tell us what your net revenue will be?— No. 95. Why not? —Because I am not an electrical engineer. 96. Surely you are a business man? —Yes, and I have satisfied myself that this is a perfectly sound venture. I know that there will be a certain demand and what the cost will be to supply it, and that that is exceptionally low. 97. Do you know what the demand is?—We know what the demand is likely to be. 98. Take the question of the Taieri County, you heard what Mr. Duncan said about that--that the count} 7 had given their consent on certain conditions; first, that they would be entitled to 45-horse power per annum; and, secondly, that the company would pay a certain amount towards the engineer's expenses. Is that correct? —Yes. That agreement will be laid on the table. 99. Do you not know that the Taieri County has assisted you and that your company has agreed to give them one-fifth of your total output ? —I know we have offered the Taieri County, including the boroughs therein, one-fifth within sixty days. If they do not elect to take it we are entitled to offer it elsewhere. 100. Then they have a call of one-fifth of your intended output? —Yes, including all the boroughs within the county. 101. Mr. Fowlds.] You put a great deal of emphasis on the fact that the'whole success of your company is dependent upon Dunedin ?—Yes. 102. And you also say emphatically that the whole of the power from both sources will be required very shortly in Dunedin ?— -Yes. 103. Would there be any objection to putting something in the Bill to provide that, so long as the city had power to supply, your company should not supply any ? —I think that would be inoperative at once, as the Waipori power will be established before the city can possibly be at work; consequently the city will be unable to supply it when it is demanded. Our contracts are let, and the generators and Pelton wheels and iron pipes will be here shortly. We have to start operations within twelve months, and, to judge from Mr. Goodman's statements, there is no chance of the Lee Stream works being finished in that time, so that the Council could not supply the power. 104. Do you think it is a fair thing for Parliament to give your company power to enter into and take possession of the city, supposing you do get a few months ahead of the city in the scheme that Parliament has already authorised. It means a certain amount of monopoly if you get large suppliers for all time? —It is the question of monopoly that we as manufacturers of Dunedin wish to avoid. We contend, as manufacturers, that the competition between the two concerns will bring us to a fair level, and it will add to the prosperity of the place. 105. Does it not mean that the city has, in the interests of the ratepayers, entered into a scheme for the supply of electricity, and that being so, if you are allowed to go in and sell at a cheaper rate and monopolize the ground before the Corporation scheme gets into operation, will not the position be this: that a few of the ratepayers of Dunedin—a few of the consumers of the electrical energy —will be benefited at the expense of the great body of ratepayers, who will be saddled with the interest on the city's scheme which you have rendered more or less useless? — That will not follow. What is more likely to follow is that if we get in and the city comes in afterwards they will probably get better prices for what they have to sell than we. In Wellington you have installed 90,000 lights for lighting purposes only. If they were all at work it would take 9,000-horse power to keep them alight. In the City of Dunedin one lamp per capita is a fair proportion to allow. In Wellington, with 90,000 lamps, there is a horse-power of 1,500. So that when we deal with a system that requires power for tramway and lighting as well, as in Dunedin, the city will have nothing left. 106. Is it not futile to object to a clause in your Bill providing that you shall not supply electricity to any one in Dunedin until the Corporation have had an opportunity to do so, and refused to supply? —I do not think it would be fair at the present time. 107. Bear in mind that Parliament has sanctioned Dunedin going into a larger scheme for electrical energy. The city has started on that. If, as you contend, all the power schemes will be involved, is it not a fair thing to give the Corporation the first call for the supply of electricity? —I do not think so. This matter has been debated for the past twelve months; our merchants and manufacturers thoroughly understand it, and if they thought our proposal were an improper thing they would not petition Parliament to grant this concession.