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84
In Lambeth and Islington your Sub-committee are without official
information
The Vestry of Hammersmith obtained their order on the 9th June 1893 at
a cost of £250, and a Committee is now considering a report from a
firm of electrical engineers
The Whiteehapel Board of Works obtained their order on the '27th June
1892 at a cost of £284 18s 6d, but they have not yet proceeded with
any works, the whole matter being still under the consideration of
the Board
The Hackney Board of Works obtained their order in the session of
1893 at a cost of only £121 2s 6d, and have not prepared any scheme
The initial cost therefore of obtaining an unopposed provisional order may
be put down at £200, and although the limit is usually fixed at two
years for laying mains in the compulsory area, no other Vestry than
St Pancras has, it is believed, given any particular effect to their
orders, through the difficulty of obtaining a long period for the
repayment of loans
Whilst your Sub-Committee fully realise the difficulty of a Vestry undertaking
to provide an installation station and to lay down distributing
mains at a cost of from £30,000 to £40,000 on a 25 years' loan, they
have not felt this part of the question to be momentous, as in the
course of time both the Council and the Treasury will no doubt see
that any undertaking would be crippled on Buch terms, and that if
local authorities are to have any municipal life at all, the very
shortest time for the repayment of loans for electric lighting must be
42 years, the limit given to public companies before they are compelled
to sell their undertakings to the local authorities
The vital question that has now to be considered is whether the
electorate of the parish, so largely composed of working men, is
sufficiently well informed and imbued with such a deep feeling of
municipal life as to continue their support to a strong progressive
party,when for a time they might be severely punished by increased
rents Heretofore, as explained, the cry of increased rates placed in
the hands of the property owners and the large ratepayers a strong
weapon against any attempt on the part of the Vestry to move with
the times, and place in the hands of the people undertakings which
have made our corporate towns so large and powerful
At the present time it must be admitted that the gas interest, as well as
that of the large property owner, is better understood by the people ;
and that any strong agitation from these quarters on the cry of
increased rates would only raise a suspicion in the minds of the
electorate that they were raising the cry as an excuse to serve their
own ends by increasing the rents and putting money into their own
pockets But will this knowledge continue among the working men ?
Will they be prepared to support their own representatives to Such
an extent and for a sufficiently lengthened period, notwithstanding