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respect of liquid assets, whilst in 1878 out of a debt of £112,414 only £17,133, or
15 per cent. was due for liquid assets, whilst going back as far as 1858, when the debt
was £3 000, there were no liquid assets at all. The Vestry, moreover, now has some
very valuable assets (such as the Town Hall) which are free of their original debts,
and which will be seen from the appendix to this report, where the total value of the
Vestry's freehold land and buildings is shewn at £260,714, at a very low valuation,
as the land and buildings are taken at cost price, whereas, for instance, since the site
of the Town Hall was purchased it has immensely improved in value, and if the
present value of the leasehold buildings be added, the Vestry has a total realisable
asset of £270,714, as against a debt of £292,574, which can only be regarded as a
most favourable financial position, whilst if an addition of £25,000 were made for
the goodwill of the Electric Lighting undertaking, the Vestry's total assets would
then actually exceed their liabilities. That the above estimate is not an excessive
one for such goodwill is shewn by the fact that the Sheffield Electric Lighting
Company, who have only been at work about three years, have agreed to sell their
undertaking to the Corporation for double what the Company have so far laid out
upon it, whereas the above estimate is only a little over 25 per cent. of the capital
outlay.
BATHS.
HEATING OF BATHS BY EXHAUST STEAM FROM
ELECTRICITY STATION.
The Baths Committee in their original scheme made provision for the use of
steam from the Dust Destructor and Electricity Station adjoining their site, but it
was thpught that live steam would be used by the engineers who were arranging for
the heating of the Baths and Washhouses. The Electricity Station and Destructor
having been got to work in the meantime, it was suggested that sufficient exhaust
steam would be available from the electricity engines for such heating, witheut drawing
on the live steam except to a small extent, and the Baths Committee accordingly
instructed the Vestry's Consulting Electrical Engineer to report on this matter, which
Mr. Manville did as follows, on the 6th November, 1897:—
'With reference to the instructions of your Committee we have now considered
the relative merits of heating the water for the Baths and Washhouses, &c., by
means of either steam produced in the Electric Light Station, or steam and heat
produced by boilers specially installed for the purpose. In order to arrive at a conclusion
as to the amount of heating required, we have decided to assume that the
following represents the number of times the water will have to be changed in the
Swimming Ponds, and the degree to which it will require to be heated, and likewise
the amount of water and degree of heating required for the slipper baths and
washing troughs.
SWIMMING PONDS.
"There are two swimming ponds, one of 137,000 gallons capacity, the other
of 100,000 gallons capacity. The water in these requires to be changed nightly
during the three summer months, or for say 90 days during the summer, and the