View report page

43
District Board of Works, who were willing to assent to the
Jablockhoff Company working under a license; and by others.
Evidence for and against the Order was given at some length, and
the following statements by Mr. (now Sir T. H.) Farrer, C.B.,
Secretary of the Board of Trade, bearing upon the question of
monopoly, are of special and permanent interest and importance:—
"As far as I can judge at present, there is no reason why the several
wires of several undertakers should not be carried down the same
street, so that supposing that the Company which is already in possession
does not give the supply of electricity at the proper price
there is'no physical reason, as far as I can see, why another Company
should not be introduced to compete with it. In the
opinion of the Board of Trade there is no legal reason why the Board of
Trade should not give another license to another Company, the
moment the first Company is proved not to be doing its duty satisfactorily.
"The Committee [on the Electric Lighting Bill, 1882]
carefully avoided inserting in the Bill any provisions for a revision of
price.
"They thought that those provisions for purchasing the undertaking
at. the end of 21 years, and the fact that no monopoly was created,
would be much better safeguards than any artificial revision of price,
This is an important point, and I mentioned it because it is suggested
in several of the Petitions. Now a revision of price has been tried in
the case of gas, and it has been an eminent failure. I think, and it
is quite obvious, that no Government Department is able to take a
commercial undertaking of this kind, and investigate it, and say—' you
can do such and such work at such and such a cost, and you ought
not therefore to charge more than such and such a price.' The true
way of settling price in this case, as in any other case, is competition,
and competition is amply provided for in the Electric Lighting Act of
last Session, and in our Orders, and in what we have done
" 'With regard to the important questions of limitation of profits,
revision of prices, and monopoly, the Board of Trade acting upon the
principles of the Act of last Session, came to the conclusion expressed
in the following paragraph of the Memorandum.' I wish to call particular
attention to the fact that this Memorandum was circulated to
all the Companies, so that everyone who has been concerned in these
undertakings has had full notice of it. It is again printed in this
Report, and no one can hereafter say that any monopoly has been
granted to them, inconsistent with the conditions herein expressed.
'No clauses are inserted dealing with the above subjects,' that is, the
limitation of profits, the revision of prices, and monopoly. ' In the