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value, and goodwill of a value equal at least, to ten years' profits; so that if the
Vestry were to set aside such a depreciation fund as would renew the whole of the
undertaking at the end of forty-two years, they would be presenting such future ratepayers
with the value of the undertaking twice over, besides burdening the ratepayers
of this generation with a debt twice as large as is necessary to provide the Parish
with electricity. As the repairs and maintenance of the plant have to be borne out
of each year's revenue before a profit is declared, the works are thus kerpt up to full
working order, and the increased profits each year will certainly suffice to meet any
increasing repairs or maintenance.
The Dust Destructor has also succeeded in destroying the whole of the dust in
this Parish, and more besides, rp to a total of 18,842 tons in nine months, and the
heat produced therefrom, and from an expenditure of coal costing £279, has thus
produced all the steam required for the generation of 491,107 B.T. units of electricity,
and if £500 be credited to this undertaking as the value of the steam supplied, the
Chief Electrical Engineer makes the total cost of the destruction amount to £2,837
(including repayment and interest on capital), whereas under the old system of barging
it would have cost £2,904, to have disposed of such refuse. After allowing, therefore,
out of the electricity profits £2,192 2s. 1d. for repayment of interest and capital, and
£500 for the cost of steam, there is a net profit, including saving of previous
expenditure, on the joint schemes for the first nine months of working of £1/268 17s. 9d.
This is sufficient to wipe off all the accummulated advances from the rates, which
amount to £1,255 8s. 2d., being deficits from 1895, to the working of the undertaking,
and then leaves a small surplus as the nett result of the scheme, which is a
very remarkable performance for an electricity undertaking. An idea seems to
have prevailed that the estimates of the success of this scheme were over rated, so that
I should like to take this opportunity of referring the Vestry to page 13 of my Report
of 1892 on the Vestry's Electric Lighting Order, where I stated that "From a consideration
of the above three cases it may be concluded that altheugh some small
preliminary loss may in the first year or two fall on the rates, the undertaking
rapidly becomes a paying one," and again in my memorandum on the report of Mr.
Manville of 1893 1 estimated on page four that the nett annual profit, including
saving of previous expenditure on the combined works, when working at their full
capacity, would amount to £1,590 per annum, or at the rate of £1,193 for nine
months, whilst the first nine months' actual profit is £1,268, despite a loss of
about £500 on the first quarter's working, when little electricity was sold, so that I
venture to consider this result proves that the only estimate I made fell below the
mark. Moreover, the cost of refuse destruction has been greatly increased during the
past nine months, by the high price which had to be paid at first for disposing of
clinker by haulage to the Canal. This cost is now greatly reduced, and when the
Committee have the appliances for dealing with the clinker for commercial
purposes as at other places, the cost of disposal will be very greatly reduced.
The Vestry have at the same time the satisfaction of knowing that they have
by then enterprise been the first to solve the great economic problem of the successful
utilization oi town's refuse for the generation of electricity, which has inundated