NEW FRANCE
ELECTRIFICATION SCHEMES. COMFORTS IN THE COUNTRY. Behind the cloud of international and internal politics, there is another France, a France of action and endeavour, of young men with ambition, and' occasional glances of this new France are obtained. One instance of this is the realisation of the immense strides made in recent years to modernise this country, commonly considered relatively backward in material progress. This is shown by statistics just published concerning rural electrification.
The figures indicate that 38,157 communes, of 95 per cent of the total, have been electrified. These communes or townships contain 98 per cent of the entire French population. In 1914, only 5,431 communes, or 15 per cent, were electrified. In 85 per cent of French villages and hamlets people still used candles and oil lamps.
The immense strides that have been made, particularly in the past ten years, are due to State subsidies and loans at low interest to the localities concerned. Such grants are at present averaging from 555 million francs to 925 million francs a year. The radio was the principal factor in determining the electrification policy of the Government. Rural residents, who had never been much interested in electric light suddenly began to demand electric current for their radio sets.
Power companies have taken full advantage of the spread of electrification and are carrying on a highly successful educational campaign among farmers, showing them countless ways in which farm labour can be lightened by the use of electrical appliances. In many parts of France model “electric villages” have been created. The government believes that electricity will be a great force in preventing the depopulation of rural areas, towards which it is making the countryside brighter, electric machines are taking much of the drudgery out of the work, and electricity brings amusements in the form of the radio and the cinema.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1938, Page 12
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310NEW FRANCE Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1938, Page 12
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