COTTAGERS' LIGHT
Stat,—I live in a six-roomed cottage which is situated zso yards from the road along which the electric power passes. Some time prior to 5939 I asked the power company for an estimate to bring the cable to my cottage. I thought five poles would carry it and was prepared to pay £25. To my astonishment the estimate was az los. This bears out what C. Clay says in your issue of November 59th : " . . if a new supply is requested in a rural area, then so far as the electric supply company is concerned the new installation is required on its own merits to pay as an economic proposition regardless of the fact that the terms demanded may make it an uneconomic proposition to the potential con- sumer." This is the root of the trouble, and not as Sir W. Beach Thomas says in the adjacent column: " . . . the trouble is not with the electricity but with the people." If, as C. Clay suggests, electricity be treated from a national viewpoint, then I should get my light as I got my 'phone, without any extra charge, just as if I resided by the roadside. Needless to say, I did not accept the estimate and am still without electric light and power ; but what a penalty to pay for privacy.—Yours obediently,
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