442 



3Ir. Alan A. CamjjbeU Swinton 



[April 19, 



This explains why other electric power schemes, such as those being 

 worked on the Clyde and in the area round Glasgow, in Yorkshire 

 and in Lancashire, have failed to go ahead anything like as rapidly 

 as the one on the North-East Coast. Parliament in its wisdom, at 

 the instance of municipal parochialism, cut nearly all the large towns 

 out of the areas supplied by these schemes, with the result that 

 progress has been impeded with real benefit to no one. 



Fig. {) shows, in the form of a curve, the growth of the total 

 capital expended on electricity supply undertakings in the United 

 Kingdom from 1881 up to the end of last vear. The authority 

 for the figures upon which the curve is based, during the first 



YEAR 1881 1891 I9CI 1911 



Fig. 9. — Curve showing Capital Expended on Electbicity Supply 

 IN the United Kingdom from 1881 to 1911. 



fifteen years, is Mr. Eobert Hammond, while the remainder are from 

 Mr. Garcke's well known handl)ook of "Electrical Undertakings." 

 The curve is interesting as showing how practically nothing was done 

 in the w^ay of electricity supply after the passing of the 1882 Act 

 until this Act was amended in 1888. Of course, there was some 

 slight expenditure, but it was of such small amount that it cannot 

 be shown in a diagram on this scale, seeing that it did not exceed 

 £100,000 until 1888, and £500,000 till 1890. A better illustration 

 could scarcely be given of how the Act of 1882 forcibly arrested all 

 pj'ogress in electricity supply for six years, with the result that 



