The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-03-13

Now the net revenue to the Portland
Water Company in the city of Deering TO.
day Is somewhere in the neighborhood OF
sixteen thousand dollars it may be Jew
dollars more. If this plant was to pc
built by the CITY of Deering, and IL inc
city of Deering could maintain the pres
emf rates, if they could get every dollar lor
revenue that the Portland Water Company
gets today they would have sixteen thous'
and dollars with which to pay the lnGer
est on their own estimated cost OF lour
hundred thousand dollars and to Keep ny
sndpay the expenses of running the WorAs'
How is the City of Deering to ne pene-
flied under that state of facts? We claim
that while this move is an INJURY 10 the
Portland Water Company, ana.to the
Standish Water & Construction Com
pany, it IL even more OF serious Injury
TO the,City of Deering. The Portland
Water Company will not y1eld THIS ter
ritory without an.effors TO retaln IL. IL
would keep some of the water takers and
I think it would lie fair to argue. that the
CITY of Deerina would not receive more
than one half OF the revenue now re-
oeived nv the Portland Water Company
Where would the City Of .Deering..be With
a plant on their hands at this cost and
revenue Of eight thousand. dollarsa
The supply in the City Of DeerinR and
the City of Westbrook Is the same as that
in the City of Portland. They have sub
stantially the same fire service as In the
City of Portland, except that we have
steam fire engines and they have not
ANY time when they choose to put in
steam fire ENGINES they will have pre-
cisely the same service that we have In
the City of Portland. We have shown
you that at Woodford's Corner there is
pressure of sixty pounds. There ia one
level In Deering which Is one hundred
twenty-six feet above the sea level, and
of course, we.do got claim to give the
same pressureaaupsthere that we do on the
lower levels. and.that Is what they seem
to complain of. There are ho complaints
about the rates, the service, or the quail
ity Of ths-water, except that someone mas
saidsthaHthe pressure wasn't what 1t
ought.to be and thatithe rate was higher
than in some other cities. The pressure
relatively is precisely the same as Git Is
in the City of Portland. 1t is the whole
pressure from Sebago Lake. which Is 267
feet above the sea while the Duck Pond
is only one hundred ninety-on feet.
How much more pressure will they get
from the Duck Pond than from Sebago
Lake?
Now as to tho rates. l have here the
award of the-referees, two justices OF the
supreme Judicial court The supreme
judicial5oourt can at any time come IN
upon petition of the citizens and reRu-
ate our water raG66. (COuDS6l T6dQS Guc
provision OF the oharter.)
Now we Fare a monopoly, natural
monopoly, but we sare tied down more
than any monopoly you noan find In the
State ofsMaine. The City of Portland ap-
pointed water commissioners and they
claimed that We were Obliged to give
them reasona BILE rates. We claimed that
we were giving them reasonable rates.
They said no and the matter was re.
10 nj nd haard nv Ghfof
Justice Peters and Judge Foster. A
question -cameEup during the herring
whether the books of the Portland Water
Company should be open to the inspec-
tion Of the counsel of the City Of Port
land We refused, not that We had any
particular objection to it, but we wanted
the court to pass on it, Ihat matter was
dered that the Portland Water Company
produce it's recordRbooks .and all books
and papers since it's organization show
fnqEthe cost of construction, etc., and
that was done. Now what did the rofer-
ees reportS Counsel reads'uhe report of
the referees. The idea of few men
now coming here and saying that the
rates are too high and do not comDare
fsvornbly with other cities when we have
had to go through all this.
With reference to this request by the
petitioners that thisssmatter be referred to
the next legislature without prejudice,
we have only to say that two weeks ago
we asked the petitioners if they proposed
to fight this matter before the committee
and we're told that they did propose 80 to
do. We have, therefore, come here with
a dozen witnesses for the purpose of pre-
senting to the committee our fside OF the
case insthesbelief..tha we could clearly
demonstrate the impraot1oability Of the
plan.prouosed, and the injustice and in
jury which would result to the Portland
Water Company, the Standish Water &
Construction Company, the City of Vest
brook, and to the City of Deering itself,
if this charter were granted.
We believe we have satisfied you that
the Portland Water Company has been
eiving good service at reasonable rates,
andrthat there Is no occasion for another
water company in Deerirg.
We prefer, therefore, to have the mat
ter disposal OF at the present time, and
submit that we should not he called
upon to appear here two years hence to