COTTAGERS' LIGHT
SIR,—Does Mr. R. T. Vaughan know, when he criticises (The Spectator, December 3rd, p. 53o) Sir Wm. Beach Thomas's statement, " the trouble is not with electricity, but with the people," that Sir William dealt, in The Spectator, July 28th, 1939, P. 146, with the absence of electricity in Dudenhoe End, Essex, is cottages, and in The Times, June 26th, 1939, p. to, Dr. Shallcross Dickinson reported a demand for £400 for I miles overhead to Thormanby, Yorkshire, to 3o cottages? The trouble most definitely is " with the people," with those County Councilors and Urban District Councillors who gave consent to monopoly of electricity supply in their areas without prescribing reasonable charges for connecting a cottage.
The Electric Lighting Act, 1882, Section 3 (I), specifically gave power to every Local Authority to impose what conditions they require as preliminary to consent. Herne Bay U.D.C. required only that a connexion must be underground. In 1942 this supplier demanded and received £15 3s. 7d. for seven yards to Sion Cottage, Reculver Drive, equivalent to £2 12s. at Mr. Vaughan's suppliers' charge, £92 for 25o yards, and to 14 shillings at his own estimate, £25 for 25o yards.
Ipswich quoted me £60o for I mile overhead to i5 cottages at Martle-
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