I fully recognise that to keep the House at any length at this moment upon this particular Bill is not to the point, because the opportunities for any useful work has gone by. But I think we all feel that we are entitled to express what we believe to be the likely operations of this Bill. If this Bill had its proper title, it would be the Charter of Monopoly for the Private Electrical Undertakings of the Country Bill. It is what we expected it to be. Those of us interested in these matters looked upon the Report of the Board of Trade Committee which recommended the setting up of super-electrical stations, the mapping out of the country into districts and areas, and the organisation of the generation and the distribution of electricity, as a very encouraging report, both from the point of view of national economy, and from the point of view of cheaper power; also of ridding the country from the smoke nuisance. When we saw the Act of 1919 we, saw there the framework of this great national scheme which would have been of some benefit to the community. We recognised the necessity for a further Act of Parliament providing the machinery to put into operation the Act of 1919.

We were anxious during the whole of last Session that the Bill which was before the House should be put into effect and made an Act, but the Government considered it undesirable that that should be done. Now they bring forward a Bill which is only a shadow of the Bill which was before the House last year, and it is framed in such a fashion that it affects a consolidation of the vested interests of the electricity generation of this country. Meanwhile the electricity undertakings have been consolidating their position. If the municipalities desire to go a yard outside their area in order to supply electrical current, they suddenly find themselves within the area of supply of one of the large power companies. They have come dawn to this House, and have secured provisional orders and the like, and have the whole country mapped out as their areas of supply. People who are desirous of having electrical current, and desire to take it from one or other of the municipalities, find they are debarred, because they are encroaching on the area of the power company who perhaps have not a cable within miles and a station within a considerable distance! On the other hand, these companies are encroaching on the areas and boundaries of the local authorities. The companies can supply power and also light. They supply the minimum of power and the maximum of light, and the municipalities are consequently losing at both ends. This Bill makes the private electricity power companies a law unto themselves. We are told that the local authorities of the country have accepted certain arrangement during the later stages of this Bill. These arrangements have been made on sufference. The municipalities are only endeavouring to save what they can from the wreck of the Bill which consolidates the vested interests in this matter.

So far as I can understand this Bill in its application to the Act of 1919, we are going to make the power companies of the country wholesale producers of electrical current, and we are going to make the municipalities of the country the retail traders to sell that commodity which the private companies have produced. It is on a par with many other things that have happened in this House of recent days. The rights of the people on one side, and the interests of the country are very definite. The point of view of economy and health and other similar things have no consideration at all if the interest is sufficiently powerful in this House to influence this House and to influence Parliament. In this Electricity Bill, like other Bills that could be named, they get their way irrespective of the rights of the people or of the country. I repeat that if this Bill got its proper title that would be a Charter of Monopoly for the Private Electrical Undertakings of the Country Bill.