Ar the special meeting of Ratepayers to be held on the 20th inst. they will
whether the plant and business of the beaked to express their opinion as to Municipal Electrical Department shall be disposed of, and if so whether the reposal which has been made by Sir harles Ross and others associated with him to purchase the same shall be accepted. For this reason it is well to lay before the community the principal items of the proposal that will be made, in order that same may be thoroughly digested, and we do this now without any desire to bias the opinions of the Ratepayers, but merely to acquaint them with the full details of the scheme so as to prevent useless discussion on the day of meeting, when only Me taken into consideration but the proposals then made must not
must be decided upon. The following are some of the conditions proposed, which will be useful in guiding the Ratepayers incoming toadecisionas to the main points in the offer made, the details of which will necessarily be left to be settled afterwards by the Council. The great question is, should these proposals be accepted by the Ratepayers, or should the Municipality continue to carry on its Electric undertaking under the existing circumstances.
The offer made by the Syndicate is as follows 1.—o purchase for cash the present plant and all rights and privileges of the Municipal Council in supplying electric lightend power to the community. The sum to be paid to be the value of the present plant as shown by the Council's books relating to the electric light department, less the amounts properly credited to the account in such books at the time of purchase.
This will enable the Municipality, say the proposers, to retire all loans contracted and still owing on this account, amounting to no less a sum than Tls. 210,000, and will leave this sum available for purposes more necessary to the community than an electric lighting plant, which the Syndicate contend, with the exception of the are lighting in the roads, is operated for the benefit of those Ratepayers only who have been able to get the electric lighting supplied to them.
2—To replace the whole of the present plant, which is of little value, being out of date, and practically useless, by modern plant with all the latest improvements, and capable of supplying electric light and power throughout both settlements and their extensions, day service, and an unlimited supply of light and power available for all purposesthroughout both settlements and their extensions.
4—Under no circumstances to increase the present rates.
The proposers declare that it has been shown by practical experience in other places, that a decrease in rates increases the demand largely, and that as the cost of generating electricity docs not increase in proportion to the increased demand, it is confidently expected that by pushing the business, which a commercial company can' do but which a Municipzlity cannot, the customers will increase to such an extent that decreases in rates may be made. They urge that above all it is necessary to bear in mind that the present plant was originally installed y a private company in 1882, and was purchased by the Municipality in 1893 for Tls. 60,000. Since 1893 loans to the extent of Tls. 275,000 have been raised for the purpose of extending and maintaining the plant. The following schedule, taken from the published Municipal reports, shows the plant which was in use in 1893 and that in use in 1898
1893. 1898.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.