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empowered to purchase the undertaking, if a Provisional Order has
been granted to a Company, on the expiration of twenty-one years
from the passing of the Act confirming the Order, or at the end of
any subsequent period of seven years, without being required to pay
any compensation for profits, whether past, present, or prospective.
Immediately after the passing of the Act, one application for
consent to a license and six notices of intended applications for
Provisional Orders were received by the Vestry. Assent was
withheld from the granting of a license, and the Vestry
determined to consider whether they should as the Local Authority
take in hand the supply of Electricity for public and private
purposes in the interests of the ratepayers. A special meeting was
accordingly held on the 16th November, and a resolution was then
passed to apply to the Board of Trade for a license as provided by
the Act and a Lighting Committee was appointed, among other
matters, to prepare the draft license.
Before the terms of the license could be prepared, the Vestry
received further notice from the two Companies who intended to
proceed with their applications for a Provisional Order, the other
Companies who had given preliminary notice abandoning their
proposals. The subject thus presented some complications, and
the Vestry were called upon to decide (1) whether they would be
justified in expending the large sum required for an installation
of Electric Lighting in the Parish; (2) whether they should allow
without opposition another authority to obtain the vast powers
sought in the matter of disturbing the surface of streets; or
(3) in what manner they could best secure the supply of Electricity
under their own control. When the question came to be discussed
in all its bearings there were manifest objections to the Vestry
undertaking the supply of Electricity in the present stage of knowledge,
especially as the Parish might thereby be committed to
liabilities of an unknown extent. The Vestry therefore proceeded
cautiously with regard to their intended application for a license.
But whatever might be their ultimate decision with regard to undertaking
the supply of Electricity themselves, the Vestry clearly
recognised the duty of limiting as much as possible any powers