The electric light to private houses.

*THE WORKER*

BRISBANE APRIL 27, 1895.

The Editorial Mill.

The City Council of Melbourne have carried a resolution to supply the electric light to private houses and have ordered an additional plant for the purpose. In view of the fact that some of the members of the council are interested in the notorious Melbourne Gas Company (up to the present one of the most carefully-nursed monopolies in the southern hemisphere) and that others are mixed up in the several electric light companies, this must be considered a signal victory for the collective interests as against private profit. A salutary clause in the Act preventing councillors from voting on public matters in which they may be interested privately can certainly be credited as the means by which the victory was secured. The following figures, extracted principally by W. Blissard, M.A., in his work on “The Ethic of Usury and Interest,” from official records for 1892, will show the advance that has been made in England on the question of the municipalisation of the gas industry:

Sixty million of capital were invested in gas works, of which two thirds were in private and one-third in municipal ownership.

The private companies supply 60,000,000,000 cubic feet; those under municipal control supply 30,000,000,000 cubic feet.

The gas supplied by private companies companies costs the consumers 8s. 71/2d. per thousand; that supplied by public corporations 3s. 31/2d., including receipts for bye products.

Private companies supply 1,128,836 consumers, with an average of 53,000 cubic feet per annum. Corporation have 1,115,267 consumers, averaging 28,000 cubic feet.

The capitalists who advanced the £40,000,000 for the private companies divided amongst them £3,143,641, while those who supplied the £21,000,000 for the municipalities received only £971,755. If those who lent money to the corporations had been paid at the same rate as those who advanced to the private companies it would have taken £630,000 more than the £971,755 mentioned. In reality, the corporations did not pay the whole of the £971,755 for interest-a considerable portion of the amount went to a sinking fund to pay off the capital account.

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Several things are apparent from the above figures, amongst which are; That £3 under the corporation gas supply system will go about as far as £5 under the “freedom of contract” system of the capitalistic wage-sweater. That the small consumers prefer the municipal ownership. That the capitalists, notwithstanding their objections to collective control, tumble over one another in their anxiety to lend to any security which is backed by the whole people, while they sniff dubiously at, and sweat heartlessly, the private enterprise they confess to desire to encourage. That there is over 10 per cent difference in the price of gas in favour of that supplied by the corporations. That municipal gas works do not require to make a profit, and the fact that the gas is 10 per cent cheaper than companies' gas, reduces the amount that is required from a lighting rate.

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In addition we may fairly assume from easily-acquired knowledge; That municipal workmen are better paid, work shorter hours, and have few grievances which are not immediately rectified. That the gas is of better quality, because there is no gain in supplying an inferior article-the people will not rob themselves. That the initiation of the municipalisation of the gas industry has altered the relationship between the private gas companies and their consumers, whereby the latter are placed in a much more favourable condition than they were previously.

The Queensland Aboriginals.

THE WORKER has received a copy of Mr. Archibald Meston's open letter to Mr. Horace Tozer on the question of the preservation and improvement of the Queensland aboriginals. The letter takes the form of a pamphlet, and contains much information. The most eloquent and telling paragraph in the letter is the following:- “It seems well to consider here our 'debtor' account with the aboriginals. Queensland has, so far, alienated about 10,000,000 acres of freehold land, and and leased about 300,000,000 acres for pastoral occupation. For the first we have received about £6,250,000in cash, and for leased land we receive £332,800 annual rental. Since the year of separation, 1859, or ever since 1842, we have not expended £50,000 for the benefit of the aboriginals, and have never since then, or before, paid them a single shilling in cash, clothes, or food, for even one acre of land. And why? Because they are too weak to compel justice, and we are too unjust to accord it without compulsion.”