The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1915-02-02
More Lioht.


, township counsel, and Mr.. Young, Of th
Public Service Electric Company, wei
present at the meeting Tuesday evening
Mr.. Palmer had been asked to look int
the question whether the Public Servic
, people have a franchise to use the street
7 of Mount Holly. In reply to this rt
quest he read a letter, which came fron
the law department of the Public Servic
Corporation. 1t read as follows:
January 81, 191
w. Claude Palmer, Mount Holly, N. J..
My dear Mr.. Palmer:
J, Your letter of January 20, is at hand
and contents noted. / have no infor-
nation at hand whether or not. the
, South JERSEY Gas, Electric and Trac-
ton Company had, at the time of the
lease to the Public Service Corpora
ton, any ordinance authorizing it or
any subsidiary company to do bust
ness in Northampton township. There
probably is some such record in Cam
den office of the South Jersey Com
pany but its existence or non-existence
does not affect the answer to the
question raised by your letter. Public
Service Electric Company is operating
under Chapter 189 of the laws of 1896,
found on page 322. That act provides
that companies organized under the
general corporation act for "the pur-
pose of constructing, maintaining and
operating works for the supply and
distribution of electricity for electric
lights, heat or power, shall have full
power to use the public roads or high
ways, streets, and alleys in
this state for the purpose OF erecting
posts or poles on the same to sustain
the necessary wires or fixtures, upon
first obtaining the consent in writing
of the owners of the soil; provided,
however, no posts or poles shall be
erected in any street Of any incorpor-
ated city or town without first obtain
tanning from the incorporated city or
town a designation OF the street in
which the same shall be placed and
the manner of placing the poles
This section has been construed by
the courts in numerous cases, notably
in that of East Organge VS.. Suburban
Electric Light and Power Company,
IA Dick, $50. This opinion was fol-
lowed in Point Pleasant Electric Light
Company VS.. Bayhead, IL Dick, 296.
This act has not been amended or re-
pealed since 1896, except to the extent
that the method of obtaining consent
from the cities and towns is regulated
by the limited franchise acts and its
supplements. Trusting that this will
furnish you the desired Information, l
am
Very truly yours,
l.. d. III. GILMOUR,
General Solicitor.
From the above it will appear that the
township does not have any control of its
streets or sidewalks. Any corporation
that wants to furnish electricity can
plant its poles where 1t pleases. There is
q proviso that the consent Of the property
must first be obtained in writing,
but the Public Service Electric Company
has not thought that part Of the statute
was worth noticing as poles have been
planted wherever the workmen chose to
put them. So the question Of franchise
seems to be settled and the people are of
no account. The streets belong to the
corporation. MI. Young referred to some
of the newspaper articles and said they
had been very unfair as they had said
the corporation did not have a franchise.
The letter of the lawyer seems to justify
any assertion that has been made on
that point, for there is nothing on record
to show that any such permission was
ever given. and 1t must be assumed that
the corporation, up to 1895, was using
the streets without grant from any one.
Since then, the lawyer says, 1t is Of no
matter whether there was or was not a
franchise. The law settles that point.
After Mr.. Palmer had read his letter
there was nothing left to do but grin
and bear it" SO far as the franchise was
concerned. Then the committee paid
its attention to Mr.. Young, who, with
pencil and notebook in hand, braced
himself for questions. The stereotyped
query, when is the work here to be
was answered in the stereo-
typed manner that it was supposed every
thing had been done. The inefficiency
of some of the lights was commented on
and Mr.. Young made a note in his book.
He was asked what made the lights in
the residences flicker and he asked if
that had been Of late occurrence, to
which one of the committee replied, mo
longer ago than this evening"" and Mr..
Young made another note and said that
situation must be remedied.
He agreed, as he had done before, that
he would assume responsibility to see
that the work in Mount Holly wal soon
and the committee expressed
Touching the point of
t~respassing on the Kelly property on
Cherry street Mr.. Young said he had
taken the matter up with a MI. Wilson
who had promised to remove the pole or
the owner of the property. In
why the pole had been
planted there without permission, Mr..
Young said it wa "a case of bull headed
ness on the part of the men in charge.
The placing of poles and a light on Front
street, near the Fair grounds was re-
ferred to, and the committee said they
had no control over that street, it was
not public property, 80 it was shown
that the corporation had no right by law
or otherwise to place poles on it. They
had used private property without per-
mission.
Touching on the subject of a new COM
pany coming into town MI. Young did
not appear to be much disturbed. He adj
mitted that, under the law, another COM
pany would have the same right to the
streets as his company, but said the Pub
lie Utility Commission would have to be
considered. If it could be shown that
the Public Service Company was charg-
ing more for its wares than it wal justified
in doing the company could be made to
reduce its price, but he did not think a
new company would be allowed to come
in even If it could sell electricity cheaper
than his concern could. He intimated
that the Public Utilities Commission
would not encourage competition. In
support of this he said that companies
were frequently organized merely for the
purpose of harrassing the company in
existence or to compel it to buy out the
new concern.
Mr.. Young's attention vas called to the
fact that much second-handed pool
wire wal being used in running the new
system through town. He did not think
<t;s r-oc oxoa4Ix- 4ha aooa Ho uzoo fold