§ MR. DIXON-HARTLAND (Middlesex, Uxbridge)I beg to ask the Attorney General whether the new Electric Light Companies in London are legally empowered to disfigure the streets, and greatly increase the risk of fires, by putting their wires overhead instead of underground?
SIR R. WEBSTERIn reply to the hon. Member, under the Electric Lighting Acts of 1882 and 1888 powers are reserved to the County Council and to the Board of Trade for regulating and controlling the cases in which overhead wires may be used, and in my opinion these powers are sufficient. The information before me does not tend to show that overhead wires increase the risk of fires.