A deputation from the Institute of Electrical Engineers waited on
the Board of Trade on Tuesday to complain of obstacles to the development of electrical enterprise in England. Their real grievance is that the local authorities have too much power over all projects, they having, as regards traction particularly, an absolute right of veto. Mr. Gerald Balfour's answer was substantially that he partly agreed with the remonstrants, but that he hardly saw how to help them, as he found the local authorities nearly irre- sistible in the House of Commons. He could only hope that a compromise would be arrived at. As regards electrical supply, such a compromise had been devised, and would be embodied in a Bill as soon as time could be found to consider it in Parliament. The real origin of the deadlock, which is serious and arrests progress in the improvement of communications, is that each of the powerful interests in- volved, the capitalists and the local bodies, wants all the profit of electrical improvement. They must, we fancy, the country being England, agree to divide, even if the com- munity has to pay a little more for the promised advantages.
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