EDGAR TRIPP
HE LEFT HIS LIGHT
IN PORT OF SPAIN
People of the
Century
By Michael Anthony
Express
Section 2
January 26, 2000
Page 15
When on October 19, 1891, Edgar Tripp got the nod from the Port of
Spain borough council to light the town of Port of Spain, he must have breathed
a sigh of relief, for he had won the contract only because two previous rivals
had defaulted on the concessions given to them.
The
latest case had been that of Alexander Thomson Macrae, to whom, on June 8,
1888, the borough councillors had granted exclusive rights to light Port of
Spain with gas. They had even taken
steps to lease him five acres of the Ariapita Pasture so he could erect his
gasworks. But they were now thoroughly
irritated by his un-businesslike approach and held a special meeting on October
19, 1891, to revoke the lease in favour of Edgar Tripp.
Macrae's
lease, which was for 30 years, had included a clause saying that it was
revocable after three years if the works for lighting the town with gas were
not erected within that time. Macrae,
who was supposed to pay $100 a year on his lease had dilly-dallied to the
extent that he had not paid even one penny for the land, had installed nothing,
and in fact he had not even signed the lease.
When
Tripp applied for the rights to light the town he must have own over the
councillors by saying the light he was going to use would be "either gas
or electricity." Electricity was
the magic word, for this was the light, which had only just begun to make its
way in the world, and the councillors could not hide the fact that this was the
system they preferred.
In
fact, even before Tripp had appeared on the scene, an Ordinance touching on
electricity had passed through the Legislative Council. This Ordinance, entitled "Port of Spain
Electric Lighting, No. 4 of 1887," was passed in April 1887, and had been
introduced only because another time-waster, Raymond Warner, had caused
needless excitement by saying he could install works and light the town with
electricity if he was to be given exclusive rights.
But
the borough council, in granting him exclusive rights for 21 years, had had the
foresight to state in the lease that if the works were not installed within
three years, the contract could be revoked on the request of the mayor.
Warner
had done nothing, and the governor himself revoked the lease.
So,
anyway, Tripp had come away with the big prize of having exclusive rights to
light the town. However, he did lose a
certain amount of faith in himself, for on February 1, 1892, he wrote a long
letter to the borough council deciding to light the town with gas, not
electricity, and setting out his terms and conditions.
The
council met and discussed his proposal, and on February 4, 1892, Tripp received
a letter from the town clerk, saying: "With reverence to your letter of
the first instant, offering to undertake the lighting of the town by gas on the
terms and conditions set out on pages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of your letter, I
am directed to inform you that the council is willing to enter into a contract
with you on those terms and conditions."
Elated,
Tripp then applied for 3-1/2 acres of the Ariapita lands, which the borough
council decided to lease to him for 30 years, charging him "one hundred
dollars a year, payable in advance."
The town clerk wrote stating that the land was for the purpose of
erecting works for the supply of Port of Spain with gas and (or) electricity.
Then
followed a long period when Tripp and the borough council quibbled over the
contract, for Tripp, having got the borough council to commit itself by paving
a road to his work site, as well as improving the area in other ways, now felt
the council could not turn back. He went
through the contract clause by clause and tried to squeeze so many concessions
out of the borough council that at one point the councillors stipulated that he
had better sign the contract within three months or lose it.
At the
same time they seem to put up with him only because he had now become definite
about lighting the town with electricity.
This is the fourth
article in this series, which appears every
Wednesday in the
Express.