Abstract
THE rapid expansion in the practical applications of electricity in parts of Australia and New Zealand and the new problems to which it gives rise is well illustrated in the Electrical Times of November 23. In England we consider a 'County Council' as a body which has definite connexions with general public services as, for example, health, education, highways and the like. This is not the case at Sydney, New South Wales, where the 'Sydney County Council' was created in 1935, by a special Gas and Electricity Act, which enables it to assume ownership and control of the electricity department which up to that time had been in the hands of the City Municipal Council. This County Council has only five members, two of them elected by the City Municipal Council and the remaining three being shared by the municipal councils of thirty-two other townships. For election as a councillor, the candidate must be qualified by being eligible for aldermanship in one of these constituencies. This arrangement has points of similarity with that of our own Joint Electricity Authorities (J.E.A.). The Sydney County Council supplies electricity directly to the public in the city, thirty-two suburbs and for street lighting in the city. In addition, it gives a bulk supply to fourteen other municipal authorities who do their own distribution, and to a company which distributes to two other municipal areas. The area throughout which a direct supply is given is about 150 sq. miles and its population is about 900,000. The 'bulk' areas are about 750 square miles and have about 150,000 inhabitants. Altogether the County Council supplies electricity over an area of approximately 900 sq. miles and having more than a million inhabitants.
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Electricity Supply in Australia and New Zealand. Nature 145, 77 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/145077a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/145077a0