ELECTRIC LIGHT LICENSE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 16, 19 January 1914, Page 5

ELECTRIC LIGHT LICENSE.

THE MAYOR’S EXPLANATION. [To Thf Editor Stratford Post.] Sir, —Another Richmond has come into the licki on the Electric Supply Company question, and what an electrical disturbance he is, or would be! Under the cloak of repeating part of a private conversation lie had with me, the new champion attempts to open the tournament with three issues, development of electrical energy, abattoirs, and prohibition. .Now, sir, i must ask that your correspondent keep to the question

chielly under review, and not raise other issues, however well-meant, or otherwise, his intentions may be. I will take the contentions of Mr Walter seriatim, and deal with them, where lie has referred to myself, leaving references to other correspondents to be dealt with, no doubt ably, by the gentlemen named. From the harshness permeating the commencement of your correspondent’s letter, it would almost appear, chat he is angry at the meagreness of the signatures on the petitions, circulated in the County and the Borough, but now that the ratepayers are alive to the true position, it is surely not surprising that a large number have refused to sign the petitions. Mr Walter is desirous that the Borough be committed to a delinile line of action six years ahead. As a gentleman occupying a seat on a public body, your correspondent must know that the present Borough Council could not commit the next Council, let alone a Council that may he in office six years hence. Mr Walter states that business men and Borough Councillors have assured him of their belief in a joint being issued. This sounds strange, at least as far as Borough Councillors are concerned, in view of the fact that the resolution passed by the Borough Council against the license was carried unanimously. Until quite recently, a number of County ratepayers believed that if the license was issued to the Company, all they had to do was. to make application and they would be supplied by the Company, with light and energy for power, at the prices’-stated. Naturally, as a business proposition, the Company would not make connections unices, in most cases, all the people along any proposed 'line would take the current, so that the idea which has been conveyed to the minds, of the people in the County, that all and sundry would be supplied with electrical energy, is an erroneous me.

Towards the end of his letter, Mr Walter suggests that an assurance -should he given the Company that their plant would bo taken over at the expiration of the concession, thereby encouraging the Company to extend their operations and increase their plant. This suggestion is tantamount to asking the Council to stand sponsor for the operations of the Company in the matter of any machinery they may see fit to instal, and must appeal to any fair-minded person, as preposterous. It is singular that the agitation hy Mr Walter for the supply of electrical energy in the County should be, as it were, on the spur of the moment, and at a time when the Electrical Supply Company is very anxious for the issue to them of a joint license for forty-two years, covering both the Borough and the County. By this statement I clo not for a moment wish to impute any improper motive to Mr Walter, but if he is so anxious for the supply of electrical energy within the County, why this hurry all at once? The Electrical Supply Cbmpany have been operating here for sixteen years, and during all that time he must have been like Kip Van Winkle, asleep and dead to the requirements of the district. If the proposed license was issued to the Company, it would he difficult to estimate the value of such a concession for so long a period, but that it would he most valuable is made apparent hy the strenuous efforts made by the Company to secure it. 1 have it on the best of authority that even directors of the Company have endeavored to persuade ratepayers to sign the editions in circulation. That the

County will in (hie course he supplied with electrical energy there is little clouht. hut no good can come of Mr Walter setting the County against the Borough.— 1 am, etc., W. P. KIRKWOOD. Mayor.