I am told the operations of “Hydro” have not cost the taxpayers of Ontario a cent in interest charges or capital investment. The whole scheme actually pays for itself as it goes. This is how it is done: The provincial government acts as banker for the Commission, loaning it money with which to build power stations and transmission lines. These loans are covered by the pledges, in the form of bond issues, of the cities, through the Commission, to meet the interest and make repayment of the capital investment. Each city issues twenty-year bonds for its local central station and distributing system. Payments on both interest and principal are met out of each year’s receipts, so that eventually the entire power system will be free of debt. Nearly fifty cities, in fact, are already in the clear on their investment, and each year brings others to the same situation. The basic principle of “Hydro” is a partnership of municipalities to obtain power at cost. The Commission makes all the expenditures necessary to develop power and deliver it to the cities. It determines the rates at which the cities may re-sell the power to local consumers. Each year the probable cost of power is estimated for each city, with allowances for interest, depreciation, reserves, and contingencies. This fixes the rates for the next twelve months. At the end of the year, the actual cost is calculated. If the expense has been more than the rates previously fixed, the cities are called upon to make up the difference; if the cost has been less, the partners get rebates on the year’s bills. When I looked for the directing mind behind all this amazing development, I quickly found it. It is in the person of Sir Adam Beck, formerly a box manufacturer of London, Ontario, and the only chairman the Commission has ever had. He is one of the most popular figures in all Ontario, and it is largely to the organizing genius and driving power of his personality that the success of “Hydro” is due. He sits in Parliament, where he keeps on the alert for the welfare of the Commission’s work, and manages in person its relations with the provincial government. [Illustration: The Niagara Peninsula, along the north shore of Lake Erie, is one of the finest fruit-growing districts in the world. Among other advantages the farmers here have cheap power from the Ontario “Hydro”.] [Illustration: The big ditch that feeds the giant power station was cut through solid rock for miles and carries a stream of water thirty-nine feet deep and fifty feet wide, or more than the flow of a river.] [Illustration: A bucket of water dropped down this cliff to the Niagara River would strike with the force of thirty horse-power. Imagine 20,000 buckets dropped every second and you have the capacity of this 600,000 horse-power station.]