At the Royal Asiatic Hall last Friday, Mr, E, I Ezra gave a most able address on his scheme for financing the further development of the Municipal Electricity Department, before a meeting under the auspices of the Civic League, over which Mr. Cecil Holliday presided.
In the course of a speech which lasted over an hour and a_ half, Mr. Ezra, after stating in opening that his remarks were meant in an entirely sympathetic spirit, for no one understood better than he did the good work which the department was doing, sketched the history of the electricity undertaking from the time when it was run more or less unsatisfactorily by a private concern, prior to taken over by the muni ipality, until the present day.
He emphasized that the spirit underlying the ratepayers' decision to run the electricity works was a desire to obtain lighting solely for their houses and the streets. Combined with the story of the growth of the Fearon Road station and the erection of the power plant at Riverside, Mr. Ezra showed how the original idea of acquiring the plant for lighting and general purposes only had developed into a. scheme whereby the plant was used for the generation of power which might be utilized by commercial undertakings during the hours when lighting current was not much in demand.
Suancuar's Devevopatent-
It was thought at the time the Riverside station was built that it would serve the purposes of the community for years to come, but with the development of Shanghai it was found that the optimism of their engineer was after all only foresight, and with the gradual expansion of the undertaking the Council found itself being surely overwhelmed. They thereupon began'to discuss the matter and what should be done to meet the situation, for something had to be done to, enable them to meet the continued drain upon their finances which was becoming very heavy indeed. Tt was then that the scheme for the handing over of the plant to a public company was mooted to shift the responsibility from the ratepayers. The scheme was received with a howl of criticism, and the public would not tolerate it for one moment.
The public had a great dread of public utility companies managed by directors and shareholders. They felt that their experiences in their own midst had shown them it was not a success, to say the least. A ratepayers' meeting was held and as a result a special committee was appointed to go into the matter:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.