16 Third Annual Report of the 



not quite one-third of the electrically lighted municipalities own 

 their own plants. The municipal consumption of electricity bears 

 a much larger ratio to the total consumption of electric power 

 furnished by the municipal plant than the water consumed for 

 municipal uses bears to the total water consumed from the mu- 

 nicipal water works. Hence, there is greater reason for the 

 municipality's supplying its own electric needs, and incidentally 

 those of its people. 



Progress in the Province of Ontario 



The work of the Hydro Electric Power Commission of the 

 Province of Ontario, Canada, continues to exhibit phenomenal 

 4 growth. The increase in use of power from the government 

 system is illustrated by the chart (Fig. I), showing the load upon 

 the system each month from the time current was first turned 

 on to October 31, 1913. 



The financial program laid out by the Ontario Commission, and 

 embodied in law, is being strictly followed, and in order to comply 

 therewith the prices at which power is delivered to the munic- 

 ipalities were reduced for 1913 in some cases 20' per cent. By 

 law, these prices must be sufficient to make the system entirely 

 self-sustaining, including the retirement of the bonds at maturity. 

 No tax or burden of any sort is to be laid upon the people for 

 the purposes of the hydro-electric system. The Commission is 

 practically overwhelmed with applications for extensions, and to 

 meet the demands in the Niagara district is increasing the capacity 

 of its high tension lines from Niagara Falls to St. Thomas and 

 extending them from St. Thomas to Windsor, 235 miles from 

 Niagara Falls. 



Windsor is just across the river from Detroit, Mich., and being 

 practically a Great Lakes port, coal is low in price. The entrance 

 of hydro-electric power into this field under such conditions indi- 

 cates that the State of New York will be covered by a network 

 of interconnected electric wires energized from a few central sta- 

 tions, and that this work will be done either by private corpora- 

 tions or by the State. The only question is, what agency our 

 people desire to have employed to accomplish the end. 



