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powers from the Board of Trade, and 82 replies were received in
response. Particulars which have been given and which the Committee
thinks may be of service to the Vestry have been tabulated and
are appended to this report. From this return much valuable information
may be gained, while it will be noticed that several Corporations
are now actively engaged in laying down plant or considering tenders.
There can be no doubt that Local Authorities are awakening from
the apathy they have so long shewn and have now begun to see the
advantages which will accrue from the retention in their own hands of
the right to supply electricity in the districts under their jurisdiction.
A glance at the appended return is sufficient evidence in this direction.
For some time past the Corporations of Bradford, Brighton and
Dublin, and the Vestry of St. Pancras have been supplying electricity,
and in none of these cases is it expected that there will be a charge
upon the rates, but, on the contrary, there is every probability that a
considerable income will in future be derived therefrom.
In London, St. Pancras is the only Local Authority at the present
moment supplying electrical energy, but provisional orders have been
either obtained or applied for by the Vestries of Hampstead, Lambeth
and Shoreditch, and the Boards of Works for Hackney, Poplar and
Whitechapel. The Vestry of Lambeth has recently adopted the high
tension alternating current system, on the advice of Mr. W. H. Preece,
for lighting the area under its control and has decided to apply for a
loan of £75,000 to carry out the scheme. Shoreditch Vestry is also
moving in the matter, and has resolved to offer a sum of £28,000 for
a site for an Electric Lighting Station and Public Baths and Washhouses.
According to an article on the "Financial Review of Electricity
Supply for 1892," which appeared in a recent issue of Lightning, it is
clear that the supply of electricity is rapidly falling more and more into
the hands of Local Authorities. From the article referred to it appears
that the new towns in which Local Authorities undertook the supply of
electricity in 1892 are 17 in number, viz., Blackpool, Burton-on-Trent,
Bristol, Burnley, Derby, Dublin, Dundee, Glasgow, Hanley, Hudders-