THE HOUSEHOLD FUEL AND LIGHTING ORDER. [To THE EDITOR OF
THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sia,—You write in regard to the ne-v :cad regulations : "The careful householder will probably find little difficulty in keeping well within these rations." I regard myself as a careful house- holder, and one who has done, and is doing, his utmost to abide by every Government regulation, but I venture to dispute your verdict. My kitchen range is not an extravagant one, and in pre- war times it consumed an average of seven to eight scuttles of coal per diem. I have an alternative gas range, which consumes 400 cubic feet of gas per diem in full work. I have a house of twenty-three rooms, and fifteen to eighteen people are fed here daily. Last year I had put in seven gas-fires to save coal, and I endeavoured to economize in every reasonable way. The total consumption for the whole house for heating and lighting was thirty-three tons of coal, about 130,000 cubic feet of gas, and 1,330 Board of Trade units of electricity. My allowance under the new Order is twenty tons of coal and 30,000 cubic feet of gas—or equivalents. If I use the kitchen fire three days a week, and cut down the supply to five scuttles, and the gas-fire the other four (thereby cutting off hot-water supply), it will require eighteen and a half tons of coal, leaving one and a half tons of coal and 30,000 cubic feet of gas for all lighting and for heating the whole house, except the kitchen. It seems to me that a ration based on rooms alone cannot be equitable. I know of a small house in the suburbs where the annual normal consumption of coal has been three to four tons, and it is now allowed nine. The number of inhabitants should also be taken into account, and also the limited hours of daylight in London during the greater part of the year. A house in the country can almost always be cleaned by daylight; in London this is impossible. The size of rooms is also important. A room ten or twelve feet square does not require so much light- ing and heating as a room twenty feet square.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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