mains (if any) which may have to be laid for the purpose, and the prices charged to ordinary consumers in the district.

TESTING AND INSPECTION.-Sections 35 to 48 provide for the appointment of electric inspectors, the carrying out of their duties, their remuneration and expenses, the provision and maintenance of suitable testing stations and instruments, the procedure for making and reporting tests, the affording by the undertakers of facilities for inspection and tests, and other matters of that kind.

The appointment of one or more competent and impartial person or persons as inspectors may be made by the local authority, so long as they are not themselves the undertakers, and, while the local authority are themselves the undertakers, by the Board of Trade on the application of any consumer or of the undertakers. If, in a case where the local authority are not themselves the undertakers, no inspector is appointed by the local authority, or the inspection of electric lines and works is imperfectly attended to by the local authority, or the local authority themselves become the undertakers, the Board of Trade, on the application of any consumer or of the undertakers, may make the appointment.

The duties of an electric inspector are described in section 36 as being:

(a) The inspection and testing, periodically and in special cases, of the undertakers' electric lines and works, and the supply of electricity given by them;

(b) The certifying and examination of meters; and

such other duties in relation to the undertaking as may be required of him under the provisions of the provisional order or special Act, or of the Board of Trade regulations.

Section 38 deals with the occurrence of accidents and provides that the undertakers shall send to the Board of Trade notice of any accident by explosion, or fire, and also of any other accident of such kind as to have caused, or to be likely to have caused, loss of life, or personal injury, when such accident has occurred in any part of the undertakers' works or their circuits, or in connection with those

works or circuits; and also notice of any loss of life or personal injury occasioned by any such accident. The notice is to be sent by the earliest practicable post after the accident occurs, or, as the case may be, after the loss of life or personal injury becomes known to the undertakers. If the undertakers fail to comply with this provision they are to be liable, for each default, to a penalty not exceeding £20. The Board of Trade may, if they deem it necessary, appoint any electric inspector, or other fit person, to inquire and report as to the cause of any accident, affecting the safety of the public, which may have been occasioned by or in connection with the undertakers' works, whether notice has or has not been received from the undertakers, or as to the manner and extent in and to which the provisions of the provisional order or special Act and the Electric Lighting Acts, 1882 and 1888, and of the Board of Trade regulations, so far as those provisions affect the safety of the public, have been complied with by the undertakers; and any person so appointed, not being an electric inspector, is to have, for the purposes of his appointment, all the powers of an electric inspector.

METERS. Sections 49 to 59 deal with meters, but, in the case of four of them, namely sections 49, 50, 51, and 53, their form has been slightly altered, section II of the Electric Lighting Act, 1909, having provided for substituting in place of them sections set out in the schedule to that Act. Among the matters covered by sections 49 to 59 are provisions for measuring the supply by appropriate and duly certified meters, except as otherwise agreed between the consumer and the undertakers; for directing how and under what conditions meters are to be certified; for requiring the undertakers to supply and fix meters at the request of consumers, and regulating the terms on which this is to be done, and the conditions as to connection and disconnection of meters; for requiring consumers to keep in order meters belonging to them, and enabling the undertakers to inspect and test such meters; for empowering the undertakers to let for hire meters and any fittings thereto, and for requiring the undertakers to keep in order

meters so let, unless otherwise provided in the hiring agreement; for securing the determination of differences as to correctness of the results recorded by meters; for requiring the undertakers to bear the cost of the provision of new meters, when necessitated by a change made by them in their method of charging for electricity supplied; and for enabling the undertakers at their own expense to instal additional meters or other apparatus for ascertaining or regulating the amount of electricity supplied, or the number of hours during which the supply is given, or the maximum power taken, or any other quantity or time connected with the supply.

MAP OF AREA AND MAINS.-Section 60 requires the undertakers to prepare, and once in every year to correct, a map of the area of supply, showing the line and depth below the surface of all their mains, service lines, and other underground works, and street boxes. The undertakers may also be required by the Board of Trade or the Postmaster-General to prepare sections, showing the level of all their existing mains and underground works other than service lines. The maps and sections are to be marked with the date when made or last corrected, and to be kept by the undertakers at their principal office within the area of supply, and to be open at all reasonable times to the inspection of all applicants. Fees are prescribed for inspection and for taking copies, and penalties are imposed on the undertakers for failing to comply with the section.

NOTICES, ETC.-Sections 61 and 62 make provision as to the form, and method of authentication, and the service of notices, orders, and other documents.

REVOCATION OF POWERS.-Sections 63 to 68 empower the Board of Trade to revoke the powers of the undertakers in certain cases, and prescribe what is to happen when such revocation occurs.

Sections 63 and 64 apply to cases where a local authority are not the undertakers. Under section 63 the Board of Trade may revoke the provisional order or special Act as to the whole, or (with the consent of the undertakers), as to any part of the area of supply, if they have reason to believe

that the undertakers have made default in executing works, or supplying electricity, in accordance with the provisions of the order or Act, and that the default is in consequence of the insolvency of the undertakers, and that, by reason of that insolvency, the undertakers are unable fully and efficiently to discharge their duties and obligations under the order or Act. The Board are to make such inquiry as they think necessary, and to consider any representations of the local authority, before exercising the power. Under section 64 the Board may, if in their discretion they think fit, revoke the order or Act as to the whole or (with the consent of both the undertakers and the local authority), as to any part of the area of supply, if the undertakers represent to them that the undertaking cannot be carried on with profit, and ought to be abandoned. The Board must inquire into, and be satisfied of the truth of, the representation, before exercising the power.

Section 65 applies where the local authority are themselves the undertakers. It empowers the Board, after such inquiry as they may think necessary, to revoke the order or Act as to the whole, or (with the consent of the undertakers) any part of the area of supply, upon such terms as they think just, if they have reason to believe that the undertakers have made default in executing works or supplying electricity in accordance with the provisions of the order or Act.

Section 66 further gives the Board a general power of revoking the order or Act at any time, upon such terms as they think just, with the consent and concurrence of the undertakers, and, where the local authority are not themselves the undertakers, of the local authority also.

Sections 67 and 68 deal with what is to happen in case of a revocation.

Section 67 applies to cases where the local authority are not themselves the undertakers. It requires the Board to serve on the undertakers and the local authority notice of the revocation and of the date on which it is to take effect, and enables the local authority, if they think fit, within 2 months after service of the notice, to require the under

takers to sell to them so much of the undertaking or part thereof, affected by the revocation, as is within the district of the local authority, upon terms of paying the then value of all land, buildings, works, materials, and plant of the undertakers, suitable to and used by them for the purposes of the undertaking or part thereof, that value being agreed or estimated in manner directed by the Electric Lighting Act, 1888, in the case of purchases effected by the local authority under section 2 of that Act. The purchase is to take effect free from any debts, mortgages, or similar obligations of the undertakers, or attaching to the undertaking, and the provisional order or special Act is to remain in full force in favour of the purchasing local authority as regards the area within the district of that authority to which the revocation of the powers of the previous undertakers extends.

In respect to cases where no such purchase is effected provision is made for the removal of any works of the undertakers placed in any street to which the revocation applies, and for reinstatement of the street. The operations are to be carried out at the expense of the undertakers by the local authority, or any body or person who may be liable to repair the street or part of a street in which the works of the undertakers have been placed, unless the local authority or such body or person agrees that the removal shall be done by the undertakers.

Section 68 deals with the case where the local authority are themselves the undertakers, and provides that the persons who may be liable to repair any street or part of a street affected by the revocation, in which any works of the undertakers have been placed, may remove them at the cost of the undertakers.

REMEDYING OF DEFECTS.-Section 69 gives the Board of Trade power to require the undertakers to remedy abuses in connection with the carrying on of the undertaking. It provides that, if at any time it is established, to the satisfaction of the Board:

(a) that the undertakers are supplying electricity otherwise than by means of a system approved by the Board, or (except in accordance with the provisional order or