The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1925-04-02
Continued from front page)

people of Washington have heard a
good deal about development in rur-
al business made by the Hydro lec-
trio Commission of Ontario, Canada,
which has been held up as being the
greatest developer of electric BUSH
ness of modern times. The Smithson-
ian institute at Washington, which
is governmental bureau, recently
made a report which gives some in
teresting facts about the failure of
! the Ontario commission to set up
the necessary sinking funds and re-
serves that it should have set up.
1t also calls attention to the fact that
the present deficit of the commission
in respect to these accounts is approx
imately $19,0OO,0O0, which somebody
will have to pay up in the future.
eve have gone over the 1928 Off
cial report of the Ontario commits
sion, which is the last one that is
available, and we find that the COM
! mission reported that it was then
serving about 14,100 rural customers,
but an examination of this report in
| dicates that of this total number of
rural customers, some 6030 were re-
ported as being suburban customers
! living Immediately adjacent to the
city limits and that 4185 were So
called hamlet customers, which are
presumably those living in commune
| ty groups. The actual number of dirt
farm customers reported for 1928 by
/ the commission was only 1923, which
| is but a few more than the number
of actual dirt farm customers served
by the Pacific Power e. Light COM
pany in Oregon and Washington. The
Ontario commission served terri
tory of approximately 10000 square
miles, which is somewhat larger than
the territory served by our company
and serves a probably 2,75O,OOO OF
people, of which over 100000 are
classified as rural. It will thus be
seen that the Ontario commission
serves a population of at least 20
times as great as that served by the
p. P. & L. company, and yet has
done but little more with respect to
getting service to farm customers
than we have, in actual numbers, and
of course, but small fraction of
what we have done in the matter of
proportion.
at may be of interest to know
that ND to October 81, 1928, the COM
mission reported that it had invest
ed in its rural distribution system a
total of $2,125,000, of which invest
men the government of the Province
of Ontario hda donated 1922, 900 free
from all obligation on the part Of the
Ontario commission or the customers.
This was done under the authority of
law which was passed In 1871
which called upon the provincial
treasury to advance SO per cent of
the cost of all primary rural distribu-
ton lines. This is, of course, merely
subsidy, which is paid by the gen.
eral tax payer. The fact of the mat
ter is, the Hydro-Electric Power COM
mission of Ontario is not fine ex-
ample of what may be done for the
benefit of the farmer, as it is ac-
tually serving only about as many
farm customers as the Pacific Power
& Light company and in a much more
densely settled territory, and has re-
ceived almost two thirds of a million
dollars from the provincial treasury.
This it does not have to refund, and
in addition to all this it will not con-
slider the extension of rural lines into
territory where the density Of pop
ulation is not sufficient to allow an
average of three customers per mile
of line. So much for what the COM
mission has done with respect Of
service.
sThat second thing is the matter Of
rates. In discussing the Ontario pub
lie ownership scheme, those who wish
the state of Washington to launch
into such an enterprise make frequent
rate comparisons showing how low
the rates are in Ontario. Generally,
however, municipal ownership enthus-
lasts leave out number of import
ant facts. In the first place, in many
instances the Ontario rates carry
certain yearly fixed or standby charg-
es which are not discussed by its
champions. These yearly and fixed
and standby charges have the effect
of raising considerably the custom
ers' annual bill. AS a matter of fact,
the Pacific Power & Light company
is now actually serving rural GUS
toners at rates considerably less
than the Ontario rural rates, and in
addition our company pays about lO
per cent Of its gross receipts back
to the people in the shape of taxes.
For instance, on the Ontario commits
sion schedule No. 8, one that covers
light farm service up to about three
horsepower and range service, ex-
cept that the range and motor must
be used at the same time, the approx
innate annual cost of the service, with
an allowance of 40 killowatt hours
per month in Ontario, would be $780,
80 whereas in our territory the an
nual bill would be between $50 and
$54, of which we pay out approx
mately SIS in taxes to help support
1 xbo povoruv,ov,& IT, np&orsr co~o,,,:~