July 26, 1900] 



NA TURE 



299 



Authorities and with the Walker and Wallsend Union 

 Gas Company — which obtained last year a Provisional 

 Order for supplying electric energy to the districts of 

 Wallsend and Willington Quay — has this session been 

 promoting a Bill for distributing electric energy through- 

 out a considerable area along the north of the Tyne to 

 the east of Newcastle. 



Between the proposed Tyneside Company and the 

 existing Newcastle-on-Tyne Company a battle royal 

 raged in the Committee Room, not merely because the 

 area proposed by the one included that proposed by the 

 other, but because a certain site on the Tyne bank was 

 scheduled by both companies as the land on which they 

 proposed to erect a generating station. 



The advocates of the Tyneside Company, led by Lord 

 Kelvin, asked, in fact, for authority to erect three gene- 

 rating stations— the one just referred to, one immediately 

 opposite on the south bank of the Tyne, and one on the 

 same bank, but much further west. 



The advocates of the Newcastle-on-Tyne scheme, on 

 the other hand, pleaded that the first site should be left 

 to them, and urged, not unreasonably, that if the Tyne- 

 side Company confined its attention solely to that small 

 bit which lay on the north bank of the Tyne to the west 

 of Newcastle, of the whole of the area it contemplated, it 

 would have ample scope for the spending of its entire 

 capital, viz. a million sterling. 



Indeed, one of the grounds of opposition to all the four 

 large schemes before this Committee was that, while 

 enormous areas were scheduled in the Bills, throughout 

 which it was proposed to distribute electric energy, the 

 capital asked for by any one of these companies was 

 only a few hundred thousand pounds, or not more than 

 a million, even when, as in the case of the Tyneside 

 Bill, it was increased to that amount while the Bill was 

 before the Committee. To this the advocates of these four 

 Bills replied that the amounts put down for capital, even 

 as increased during the progress of the Bills through 

 Committee, were only intended to enable a start to be 

 made, and that after a few years the companies would 

 necessarily come to Parliament again for a large increase 

 in capital. Further, that while it was proposed to start 

 with erecting in each of the four districts a smgle 10,000 

 horse-power electric generating station, in a i^w years 

 50,000 or more horse-power would have to be electrically 

 delivered in each of these districts if the Bills passed. 



Excepting the Newcastle-on-Tyne Bill, which came be- 

 fore another Committee, the Lancashire Bill was the 

 most moderate. On the other hand, the South Wales 

 Bill was the most grasping, for it was the only one which 

 professedly aimed at obtaining powers to invade a town 

 and break up its streets without the consent and even 

 against the wish of the local authority if the person whom 

 the company aimed at supplying with electric energy 

 was a " wholesale customer." And such a customer was 

 defined in the Bill as one who was prepared to take 

 20,000 units a year. 



Those who drafted this Bill no doubt were under the 

 impression that there were very few people in the io;o 

 square miles of the counties of Glamorgan and Monmou'ch 

 covered by this Bill who at present took more than 

 20,000 units a year. And no doubt that was the case, for 

 only some six could be cited by those who represented the 

 Corporations of Cardiff and Newport. But hitherto it has 

 been almost exclusively for lighting that people in these 

 boroughs have taken electric energy, and when from the 

 electric supply systems of these Corporations, or from 

 the mains of some outside company — should such a 

 company gain access — manufacturers begin to receive 

 current for working electro-motors, then a 20,000 unit 

 customer would only pay 83/. bs. jd. a year for his energy, 

 at \d. a unit, and therefore in no sense could he come 

 under the category of " wholesale." 



NO. 1604, VOL. 62] 



In fact, when the promoters of the South Wales Bill 

 realised that even a 3 horse-power motor running con- 

 tinuously day and night — in connection, for example, with 

 a blast furnace — would consume 20,000 units a year, and 

 that a 9 horse-power motor working ten hours a day for 

 300 days in the year would require the same amount of 

 electric energy, they saw that their " wholesale customer " 

 would have to be thrown overboard. 



In despair, however, the promoters still clung to the 

 reed that a local authority could not if it would, and 

 should not if it could, erect plant for supplying factories 

 with electric energy on the large scale contemplated by 

 these Electric Power Distribution Companies, and they 

 urged that the ratepayers' money ought not to be used 

 for specalative purposes, forgetful apparently that, ever> 

 when a local authority has bought up an electric supply 

 undertaking at twice the sum that it cost the private com- 

 pany to erect it, the rates have been ultimately relieved 

 in consequence of the purchase, and the ratepayers there- 

 fore benefited by the local authority becoming a purveyor 

 of electric energy. 



Ultimately, on Wednesday, June 27, the chairman. Sir 

 James Kitson, who it is important to remember is not 

 merely an M.P., but what is far more important the head 

 of a great manufacturing firm, a director of a great rail- 

 way, and the ex- Mayor of a great city, made the following 

 most excellent declaration : — 



"A local authority which undertakes and is prepared 

 to give a full and ample supply of electrical energy for all 

 purposes to consumers within its district ought not, with- 

 out its consent, to be required to give facilities for the 

 supply, within its district, of electrical energy by other 

 undertakers. But if a local authority is unable or unwill- 

 ing to provide on reasonable terms and within a reasonable 

 time a full and adequate supply of electrical energy for any 

 purpose to any company or person applying for the same 

 within its district, such company or person should be at 

 liberty, after notice to the local authority, to obtain their 

 supply from other authorised undertakers, and the local 

 authority should be required to give all necessary facilities 

 for this purpose. Any difficulty arising out of the above 

 questions should be subject to arbitration as provided by 

 the general Acts.'' 



Doubtless this decision did not please all ; but how 

 acceptable was it to those who, like myself, have been 

 hungering for the realisation of our dream of twenty-one 

 years ago — " power brought to the workman, not the 

 workman to the power " — but who have seen with appre- 

 hension the growth of obstacles nourished by England's 

 spirit of masterly inactivity and by its not unnatural, nor 

 wholly unwise, veneration of vested interests. 



For now local authorities are put on their metal. If 

 you realise, says Sir James Kitson's Committee, what 

 are your duties in providing all your people with " an 

 ample supply of electrical energy for all purposes," we 

 will be no parties to any hindrance through competition 

 being put in your way. But if your district be one in 

 which bumbledon reigns supreme, then our declaration 

 is that no municipal barrier shall be left standing to 

 oppose the free entrance of those who come with offers 

 of cheap electric energy. , 



Next, on Thursday, June 28, the formal statement was 

 made by the Chairman: — " that the preamble of the South 

 Wales Electrical Supply Bill is proved, also that the pre- 

 amble of the Durham (County of) Electric Power Supply 

 Bill is proved ; and the preamble of the Tyneside Elec- 

 tric Power Bill is not proved to the satisfaction of the 

 Committee, and that the preamble of the Lancashire 

 Electric Power Bill is proved to the satisfaction of the 

 Committee." Then followed the lengthy process of draft- 

 ing the clauses, and finally, on July 16, these three Bills, 

 of which the preambles had been reported by the Com- 

 mittee as proved, were read a third time in the House. 



On the following day, the North Metropolitan Electric 



