takers proposing to give the supply are prohibited by Act of Parliament from supplying, the Board may not grant the order without the consent of the undertakers in whose area the premises are situate.

METHOD OF EXERCISE OF LOCAL AUTHORITY'S PURCHASE POWERS IN CERTAIN CASES.-Section 7 deals with two separate matters affecting the purchasing powers of local authorities. Sub-section (1) deals with the case where a company has a generating station, or mains, or other works used solely for supplying electricity within the district of a local authority, but situated outside that district. In such a case, for the purpose of the powers of purchase conferred on the local authority by the Electric Lighting Acts or the Provisional Order, such generating station, mains, or other works are to be deemed to be situate within the district of that local authority, and, where a generating station or mains or works are used solely for supplying electricity within the districts of two or more local authorities, but are not situated within any of those districts, the Board of Trade may, on the application of all or any of those authorities, by Provisional Order, apply this provision, subject to such adaptations as the circumstances of the case may require. Sub-section (1), however, is not to apply to any generating station, mains, or other works authorised by a special Act passed before the passing of the 1909 Act, except by agreement between the local authority and the company concerned.

Sub-section (2) deals with the case where the undertaking of a company is situate partly in the district of one local authority, and partly in the district or districts of one or more other local authorities. It provides that any one of such authorities, having power to purchase part of the undertaking, may, with the consent of, and upon such terms and conditions as may be approved by, the Board of Trade, and, in the case of an undertaking authorised before the commencement of the 1909 Act, with the consent also of the company, transfer their rights of purchase to any other local authority having power to purchase another part of the undertaking.

JOINT EXERCISE OF POWERS.-Section 8 enables the Board of Trade, with the concurrence of the Local Government Board (now the Ministry of Health), by Provisional Order, to make provision, through the constitution of a joint committee or joint board or otherwise, for the joint exercise of all or any of the powers under the Electric Lighting Acts, or any Provisional Order, by two or more local authorities as respects any area of supply consisting of the whole or parts of the districts of those authorities.

PROCEDURE, ETC.-Section 9 deals with a minor matter of procedure. Section 10, as to revision of maximum prices, and section II, as to certification of meters, I have already referred to. Section 12 deals with a minor matter as to the accounts of undertakers who are local authorities.

Section 13 requires the Board of Trade to make returns to Parliament giving particulars as to reports made by auditors appointed by them to audit the accounts of any undertakers, and as to any action taken on such reports by the Board, and by the undertakers.

Section 14, as to restrictions on the transfer of powers of undertakers, I have already dealt with.

STAND-BY SUPPLIES.-Section 15 dealt with the charges which may be made by undertakers for what are known as "stand-by" supplies, but it has been repealed and replaced by section 23 of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1922, which provides that, notwithstanding anything in the Electricity (Supply) Acts, 1882 to 1922, or in any other Act, or any Provisional or Special Order, a person shall not be entitled to demand, or to continue to receive, for the purposes of a stand-by supply only, from any authorised undertakers a supply of electricity for any premises having a separate supply of electricity, or a supply (in use or ready for use for the purposes for which the stand-by supply of electricity is required) of gas, steam, or other form of energy, unless he has agreed with the undertakers to pay to them such minimum annual sum as will give them a reasonable return on the capital expenditure incurred by them in providing such stand-by supply, and will cover other standing charges incurred by them in order to meet the possible maximum

demand for those premises. The sum to be so paid is to be determined, in default of agreement, by arbitration.

APPARATUS LET TO REMAIN PROPERTY OF UNDERTAKERS. -Section 16 provides that all electric lines, fittings, apparatus, and appliances let by any undertakers on hire, or belonging to any undertakers, but being in or upon premises of which the undertakers are not in possession, shall, whether or not they are fixed to the premises, or to the soil thereunder, continue to be the property of, and be removable by, the undertakers, provided that they have conspicuously placed upon them a distinguishing metal plate or a brand or other mark sufficiently indicating the undertakers as the actual owners thereof. For the purposes of this provision apparatus and appliances disposed of by the undertakers on terms of payment by instalments are to be deemed to be let on hire, until the whole of the instalments have been paid. Nothing in the section is to affect the rating assessment of the premises on which the apparatus or appliances are fixed.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.-Section 17 requires the giving of 24 hours' notice in writing to the undertakers by a consumer quitting premises supplied with electricity. Failure to give the notice renders him liable to pay the money accruing due in respect of the supply up to the next usual period for ascertaining the register of the meter, or the date from which any subsequent occupier requires a supply, whichever is the earlier.

Section 18 empowers the undertakers to refuse to supply a person whose payments for electricity are in arrear in respect of the same or other premises.

Section 19 deals with the stamp duty on agreements for supply of electricity.

Sections 20 and 21 I have already dealt with.

Section 22 makes special provision for protection of the royal palaces, parks, and gardens, museums, and other public buildings, and their contents against injury through non-consumption of smoke or the evolution of oxides of sulphur at generating stations of electricity undertakers.

RESTRICTION ON COMPETITION.-Section 23 gives elec

tricity undertakers a certain measure of protection against competition. It provides that, where, in any area, a local authority, company, or person is authorised to supply electricity under Act of Parliament or under licence or Provisional Order granted under the Electric Lighting Acts, it shall not be lawful for any other local authority, company, or person to commence to supply or distribute electricity within the same area unless such supply or distribution is authorised by Act of Parliament or by licence or Provisional Order granted in terms of the Electric Lighting Acts. This provision, however, is not to prevent any company or person from affording a supply of electricity to any other company or person, where the business of the company or person affording the supply is not primarily that of the supply of electricity to consumers; nor is it to prevent any company, who, at the passing of the 1909 Act, are empowered by their memorandum of association to generate electricity, from affording a supply to a railway company for purposes incidental to that company's undertaking, other than the conveyance of public traffic.

PROTECTION OF GAS AND WATER UNDERTAKERS AGAINST EXPROPRIATION.-Section 24 gives a special protection to gas and water undertakers against compulsory expropriation from their land at the instance of electricity undertakers. It provides that nothing in the 1909 Act is to enable the Board of Trade by Provisional Order to authorise the compulsory acquisition of any land which, at the date of the first publication of the notice for the Provisional Order, belongs to any gas or water undertakers, and is used, or authorised to be used, by them for the purposes of their undertaking.

Contents of Provisional Orders. Before we go on to deal with the Electricity Supply Acts of 1919 and 1922, it is desirable to say something as to the contents of Provisional Orders issued under the Acts with which we have already been dealing, and as to the Electric Power Companies, which began to spring up about the year 1900, and for whose constitution and powers provision has been made by special Acts passed in that and subsequent years.

I take, at random, some provisional orders scheduled to a confirming Act passed in the year 1914. They contain sections incorporating the Electric Lighting (Clauses) Act, 1899; stating the name of the undertakers, and the address of their principal office; defining the area of supply by reference to a description in a schedule in the order, and to a map deposited at the Board of Trade; empowering the undertakers to break up certain streets and railways mentioned in another schedule; prescribing, again by reference to a schedule, certain streets in which the undertakers are compelled to lay down suitable and sufficient distributing mains for the purposes of general supply within two years; specifying the maximum prices which the undertakers may charge for the supply of electricity, the prices being set forth in a further schedule. Where the undertakers are not a local authority, there is also a section naming the amount of the deposit they are required to make in compliance with section 5 of the Electric Lighting (Clauses) Act, 1899. Generally these are the only provisions in the order, though occasionally some special clause appears, such as one giving the local authority the right to purchase the undertaking at an earlier date, and on different terms, from those prescribed in the Electric Lighting Act, 1888, or a clause giving the Board of Trade a special power of revoking the order as regards particular parishes, if distributing mains are not laid there within 3 years.

Electric Power Companies.-As regards the Electric Power Companies, these are companies invested with powers of supply over large areas, generally as large as a county, and sometimes larger, the main object being to generate electricity on a large scale and supply in bulk to undertakers having powers of distribution in parts of the area, or to large power consumers. The extent of the authority given to these companies has varied to some extent in different cases, but for the most part the following limitations were placed upon them:

(1) That the company should only supply to authorised undertakers, or to persons requiring a supply for power, and should not supply for lighting purposes to any parties