Dec, 22.
THE announcement by the Municipal "Bleetricity Department of a substantial reduction in the cost of lighting and other domestic supply is not only gratifying to the consumer but a tribute to the efficiency the service and the correctness of the policy pursued over a number of years. The reduction consists of bringing down the' lighting rate from thirteen tael cents to eleven tael cents per Kilowatt hour, and there is further the inauguration of a domestic utility rate which provides for the supply of all current for household purposes other than lighting and for fans At three tael cents per kilowatt hour, In this connexion but just to point out that no orresponiing drop. in power rates is taking place just now, the reason being that they are considered sufficiently satisfac tory. Of old a vague suspicion stuck at the back of the domestic consumer's mind that the power 8 differentiated against him, and so from time to time criticism was heard from various quarters of the policy of the Department, The fact that how domestic "consume to receive this reduction prove the best answer to these critics, Rather curiously just about the present time rumours have gone the rounds that an Increase In the power rates was in contemplation, but we understand that they are without foundation, and—everything points to the contrary. The present reduction comes as pleasant culmination to a struggle with a series of adverse factors which has perhaps not been generally recognized to have been in progress for a considerable period.
Duling the past few years, the Electricity Department has passed through three distinct phases. The first of these was associated with the boom period when the call for supply was! insistent and the ability to meet the demand was strained some-
Ihave to be exerted if the Elect~ tricity Department were to main-{tain its position as an economi cally successful undertaking' land, with the coming into being of the third phase, there were periods when it' seemed as though the utmost effort could not avert a serious setback.
This third phgee in the series witnessed the continuance the slump, aggravated by the wholesale curtailment of the local textile and flour-milling activities, carrying with it a corresponding fall in the Electvieity Department's revenue from these sources. Concurrently, the world's engineering industry began to seek outlets for its products, offering—individual plants at pre-war prices, post-war efficiencies, and generous credits, and, in many cases, putting forward prom: of performance very attractive to industries already sorely beset to effect the economies necessary to maintain a profitable' existence. The action authorized by the Council and the consequent scope given to those responsible for the handling of. the Electricity Department's affairs, coupled with the very ullest advantage being taken of the Department's potential ability to generate and supply electric energy at far lower cost than that attainable by relatively small individual plants, has enabled the Flectricity Department, not only successfully to: counter the adverse factors enumerated, but also to redeem fits promise to reduce the cost of domestic supply by a very considerable percentage. This achievement, has not been the work of weeks or months, but is rather the outcome of policy dictated by those associated with the administration of the undertaking during the past years. As has been shown these have in no sense been easy years, in fact there. must have been many periods of the gravest anxiety and the Department assuredly deserves congratulation on its success in overcoming such difficulties. times beyond breaking point. During this phase, every available unio of plant was operated to its full capacity, and capital represented by the plant, 'HEA consequence, was being utilized to the utmost, Furthermore, at that time the purchase of individual plants by. industrial concerns was impossible, and hence the charges to be paid for the desired supply were of secondary consideration provided that the supply could be obtained. Pollowing_ this came the second phase, Fepre sented by the reaction following the boom, when, concurrent with, the installation by the Electri city Department of a sufficiency of generating plant to meet existing and prospective demands, the slump set in. Even so, the world's engineering industries were till struggling with strikes and with more orders. for Home deliveries than gould handled. Hence, the competitive clement represented by the. potential: installation of individual. plants in Shanghai was largely. absent, On the other
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.