CORRESPONDENCE. ELECTRIC LIGHTING. A COMPLAINT.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1566, 18 July 1882, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE. ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

A COMPLAINT.

TO TIIK EDITOR. Sik, — Some time ago a proposition was brought before the Cambridge public re lighting our township with gas, and facts and figures were brought forward to show that the scheme was not only practicable, but that it would pay. Fifty consumers were named as the minimum number who would take the gas. At the time I thought electricity would be better, and having made some enquiries I have come to the conclusion that if gas would pay, theu electricity would pay twice as well. Gas plant would, it was stated, cost about £1200, and about £450 per year for interest and expenses. A Brush dynamo electric machine of 12,000 candle power, with the necessary lamps, etc., can, at the present moment, bo obtained in Auckland for about £500, and would require eight horse-power to drive it ; this power might bo had from the river by means of a floating wheel, thus saving the •whole expenditure for coal, &c., which was the largest item reckoned in the cost of gas. We should then stand after allowing a very liberal amount for the floating wheel, the erection of poles, etc., thus : 10 per cent, on capital of £1000 ... £100 Management per year £100 £200 'or considerably less than half the cost estimated for the gas, and if all reports from the old country and America are ' ' true, an infinitely better light. Or tak- '! ing 3s per week as the average cost to each of the 1 fifty consumers would* give ( ; >£7 10s per year, a sn'n sufficient to pay - all working expenses and interest, and leav*e a sinking' fund that would clear off >?utheii original cost in about four years. Thio plant would do all; and more "than -«"the'£l2oo gas plant wmld/-*-! am^&c.', ' n >-*- ' - > '. 'D; .JjUchabdson. , * -, ,- »—s_*-1.,» — s_*-l., ...?•* '

i Sib,—l wish to draw the attention of the

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