XCVI. RELATION OF ELECTRICITY TO IRRIGATION WORKS. 
in Australia which will well repay a capital outlay of £20 
per acre on pumping plant, and such areas even if small 
and scattered, can certainly be reached by overhead electric 
transmission lines. 
The question arises, what has been and is being done in 
regard to power distribution over large areas by means of 
electric transmission. There is at present taking place in 
England a most remarkable development in this direction. 
During past years, large industries have been built up in 
manufacturing centres, and coal has been conveyed to them 
as required, and there consumed for generating power. 
At the present moment power distribution companies 
are busy erecting power houses on or in the neighbourhood 
of the coalfields, for the purpose of transmitting electricity 
to the industrial centres. Their existence depends on the 
fact that it is cheaper to generate, transmit, and apply 
power by means of electric motors than to transport, dis- 
tribute, and consume coal under distributed power plants. 
In England, it is not only necessary that this should be 
the best and cheapest method of transmitting and applying 
power, but it must be so much the best as to justify the 
abandonment of existing power plants. The following are 
some of the more important of these Companies: The South 
Wales Hlectric Power Distribution Co., to supply an area 
of 1,050 square miles. The Shannon Water and Hlectric 
Power Company, with an area of 2,800 square miles. The 
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Power Co., with an area 
of 1,570 square miles. The Yorkshire Electric Power Co., 
with an area of 1,800 square miles. The Leicestershire 
and Warwickshire Hlectric Power Co., with an area of 
1,340 square miles. -The Kent Hlectric Power Co., with 
an area of 1,485 square miles. The Cornwall Electric _ 
Power Co., with an area of 1,100 square miles, and seven 
other smaller companies. 
