THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

Mataura Ensign, Volume V, Issue 249, 24 April 1883, Page 2

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.

All persons Acquainted with JNe*w Zealand must have noticed the general de* sire and readiness to adopt and carry out every discovery and appliance for publio convenience and utility which may be brought into use in Europe or America. In hardly any respect do we kg behind the larger populations of the old world or the new. The latest improvements in British steamships are speedily found in our own. Our factories, small as they generally are, seek the most modern machinery. In our agricultural implements, bur tramways and telephone appliances, we are fairly abreast of similar or. even of much more dense populations in the Old Country, and any discovery made elsewhere which add^ '.to general comfort and convenience is immediately discussed and if possible utilised in the Colony., , In England electric lighting is steadily making advances— slowly, in the estimation of persons who a few years ago expected to see an immediate revolution; from older methods, and the new light ilt once taking full possession and makins a clean sweep of all that had precfd«dit. But though slowly it is 'atekdilv '.and surely making way ;j and, : 4%n^&g *hpughtfs_ mon there are.^Kse- ; „a!ter--?Ml:3iHAussion, on continum|||he uss uf gfe» tor the present ; but even in these instances the attitude is that bf suspsns. and, further enquiry. The adoption of the light is not rejected but delayed, and the Home papers give evidence of a prevailing opinion that it is destined, if not immediately, yet in the near future, to supersede that which has generally been relied upon for more than half a century. In a few of our larger buildings the light , has already been used, but its first use in the Colony, on a more extended scale takes place at Lyttelton in a week' or two, in the lighting oi the town and , harbor, aad will no doubt attract a good deal of attention, From the position of Lyttelton the light will show to great advantage, and if as successful as its promoters anticipate, other of our towns will soon follow suit. We observe in Qur Canterbury files that a good deal of discussion fa as taken place and is taking plafce as to the lighting of Christchurch, at present one of the most dimly lighted of our chief cities. The Gas Company— for the gas is supplied by a company — h&s offered additional lamps at a considerably reduced price, and an electric company has also made offers, The C_,ty Council, wisely we think, has agreed to defer its, decision till the opportunity of witness-'' ingjthe lighting of the Pert has-been afiorded. There is one principal cause of delay in its general adoption. Improvements are rapidly taking place — not so' much in production as in facilities for storing, and for dividing and distributing the light, all going of course in the direction of reducing the cost. The plant of to-day may in twelve months have become antiquated and valueless. But if we rightly read the signs of the times, the eiectrio light is certainly the light of the future. . What wili the shareholders in our Gas Companies say to this?