THE HUNTLY PRESS PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT l P.M. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1914. ELECTRIC LIGHT OR DARKNESS? WHICH?

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 6, 10 July 1914, Page 2

THE HUNTLY PRESS PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT l P.M. FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1914. ELECTRIC LIGHT OR DARKNESS? WHICH?

To-morrow tlie rate-payers oi Huntly will have an opportunity of approving or rejecting the proposal of the Town Board te raise a loan of £6OOO witl which to instal an electrical plant that will provide not only an illuminant adapted for public and private use, but also the power necessary for domestic and business purposes of. al. kinds. At the present time the streets are lighted (?) by Lu> lights at an average annual cost of £285,"a f ; o that includes the cost of the lamps, and one tha woultjS, not be cavilled at if the lights, were sufficient in nurabei and Efficient in kind. From al accounts tho lamps have hat their day, whilo their renewal, i the present system is adherer almost immediately im

perative. The general fund administered by the Town Board will not admit of many renewals, so that, if the ratepayers reject the loan proposals, the town, when not illuminated by the moon, will return to that state of Cimmerian darkness from which it emerged only a few years ago. The annual cost of the present street lighting system which is maintained from the general rates, will almost provide the interest and sinking fund on the £6OOO required for the installation of a plant, which will funish more numerous and more efficient, lights than heretofore, and of machinery, which will supply the power required for that water service whose advent is not only urgent but imperatively necessary to the health, comfort and convenience of the residents. No argument, except, the selfish one of an increase in rates, can bo levelled against the proposed lighting scheme, and the increased rating will be so microscopic when compared with the enhanced value of private property, which is the natural corollary to public improvements, that it may be left out of account altogether, the more so, as it will most likely he unnecessary to collect this rate after the first two or three years when the householders, convinced of the utility, efficiency and economy of electric light, begin to take the current in gradually increasing numbers. Those who have had their premises fitted with acetylene or otfter gas will be somewhat disinclined to favour the proposal; but, while they have no intention, nor will they be expected, to *' scrap ” their plant, they ought to remember that private economies should not stand in the way of public progress, and that the gain to he derived from an efficient lighting system will more than compensate them for the small monetary loss that may for a short time follow the initiation of the scheme. AH who have the welfare and ad van cement of the town at heart will heartily support the proposal, and selfishly so, since they will be participators in the benefits it brings in its train, and will be doing something not only for the Huntly of to-day but for tlie Huntly of the next year or two. Those who can look ahead foresee an era of increased prosperity of which the erection of a bank and of the handsome business premises contemplated are but the harbingers. To-morrow’s vote, if favourable, will hasten the coming of that era; if unfavourable, it will cause postponement until the a.. likening of an enlightened civic consciousness tramples down obstacles and conservative prejudices and demands those amenities that are the lifeblood ot a progressive community and the antipodes of that stagnation which spells social and commercial death. The neighbouring towns of Frankton and Ngaruawahia have shown an example that might well be followed by Huntly, and the residents of those towns, after their experience of electricity as an illuminant, would find it almost impossible to go back to the candle or the kerosene lamp of wind to them would he prehistoric times. It is to be hoped that the ratepayers of Huntly will give the proposal their earnest consideration, and if that is done the number of votes recorded against the loan will be few indeed. The question of cost to the consumers, whether ratepayers or not, cannot be correctly estimated at the present juncture but it may safely be assumed, that when kerosene, lamp glasses, globes and wicks —tc say nothing about the time and attenti m required to keep oi lamps iu order, or the dangers attendant on the careless use oi naked illuminants —that electricity. once installed, will prove cheaper, safer, healthier, anc m:>ro efficient. Roughly speaking, the cost of leading the wires from the main wire to the private house or business place wil amount to something like thirty shillings per light, an expenditure that will never require t< be repeated. From enquiry i 1 has been ascertained that the cost of lighting a six roomed house at Frankton during the month of June, when the greatest amount of light i s used amounted to about 6 . while at Ngaruawahia for a similar house for the same month the cost was 6, Consumers will be charg'd at sc much per light, or, if they prefer if, according to the amount used as recorded by meter, the annual charge for which will be infinitesimal. All things considered, it would be bad policy tc vote against the loan, for there is no doubt that from whatevei point of view the question is reguarded, the initiation of the scheme will be followed by the improvements that inevitably follow safe and economica' enterprise.