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54
"I am to add, with regard to the second clause submitted by the
Local Authorities [to prevent amalgamation] that the object
appears by the Board of Trade to be one which should be
effected by an agreement between the Local Authorities and
the Promoters, a copy of the agreement being 'scheduled
to the Order.'"
The foregoing official statement, that in granting a Provisional
Order the Board of Trade reserved to themselves
full liberty to grant further Orders or Licences in the same
area of supply, completely answered the purpose of the
Yestry. With regard to the second proposed clause, the
Vestry entered into an agreement with the promoters, and.
submitted the same to be scheduled to the Order, as suggested
by the Board of Trade. Some technical difficulty, however,
arose, and as the Vestry entertained considerable objection to
the existence of a private agreement outside the Order, they
again urged upon the Board that the subject matter of the
Agreement might properly be incorporated in a clause in the
Order. After some little delay, the Board of Trade assented
to this course, and a paragraph to the following effect was
inserted :—
The Undertakers shall not at any time, without the previous consent
in writing of the Local Authority, acquire or purchase the
undertaking of, or associate themselves with, any other Company
or person supplying or intending to supply electricity
within the Parish of St. James, Westminster.
Having thus succeeded in maintaining their two cardinal
principles of a right to competition, and power to prevent
competition being defeated by amalgamation, and the minor
objections having been disposed of in a satisfactory manner,
the Vestry assented to the making of the Order in the terms
agreed. The Order was made by the Board of Trade, and