The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-04-29 00:00:00

Total .. 661 18 2

Which sum forsuch purposes appears to your Committee
as preposterously small. Your Committee cannot excuse
Messrs. 1.. H. & H., for referring to the year 1863 to find
the insignificant anioaqt of £l4 lOs wherewith to swell
the amount, after •• emphatically affirming that all mat-
ters of account prior to 1864 require to be excluded."
The amount for law charges your Committee considers
to he satisfactorily explained, but the item of stock,
which the Gas Company had not brought forward until
1.68, it is of opinion was correctly dealt with by the Gas
Committee.

The uncollected accounts at the end of the year the
Committee also thinka were properly brom:lit into the
account, as otherwise the Gas Committee e,111•1 .tot have
shown how much profit had been realised to the end of
the year '69.
With regord to what is alluded to by Messrs. L.
H. as the •• principal error," those gentlemen do not ap-
pear to have quite understood what the (las Committee
attempted to *hew, which misconception may have been
caused by the ties Comruitte in their not haying ex-
pressed themselves with sufficient clearness. It was only
intended to ithew that the gas ae.munts after all dividends
had been paid in full, still left a balance of .E 17.11 Os lid
to which the consumers were entitled in the shape of 1/-
reduction in the price of gas for one year. Seeing that
the Gas Company reduced the price of gas in 1663, with
a less favourable balance in hand than can be Otero by
your Committee to be in hand in 1370, together with a
comparison of the price at which gusts supplied by other
works, they consider that the company are again able,
without detriment to their interests, to reduce the price
of gas. . .

„.
With respect to the SUM which has accrued for divi-
dends since 1e63, which the (las Committee's report
stated to be £9,507 is Id, but which Messrs. L 11.vic11.
calculate to be £9,912 Is 4d, your Committee is of the
opinion that the former sum is the more correct one. and

ILL the eouipany are pot entitled to 10 per cent. upon
borrowed morey, as stated by the aCCOULtaIiI.S.
It would appear that the company are entitled to form
a reserve fund. as represented.
The following four items mentioned in ltlessrs. Laundy,
Harrison, and Harris' report, appear to be correctly
muted, viz.:—

s. d.
1. Dividends actually distributed 1864-9 2245 8 0
2. Surplus 31 Deer. 1869
3. Contingency fund misappropriated,
1865
4. Sarum, of omitted profit and loss
3 17 11

balances
To these sums the following amounts may,
in the opinion of your Committee, be
added, viz. :
St ck shown to exist in 1863, never hav-
ing previously been brought into the
account+ 1571 3 3
Labour, which it is assumed should have
been charged to capital account fairly 2979 7 9
Amounts of accounts to collect at the
end of the year, say
Stock of lamp-posts and meters, say
Difference between the balance brought
forward in 1363, viz., £1054 Si 6d, and
that arrived at by the Gas Committee
viz., £2lOB lls 04c1

Total.. i 13366 4 l
Instead of £3732 7s 101, as stated by Messrs. L. H. & H.
Taking from this total £12,677 2s 114, whigi they say
the comp..), are entitled to for dividends, ar. 4.in
. .

full reserve fund, leaves a balance of .tic
to the creda.. . . .

Ike item of ma.ntenance is not in any way referred to
in M . Laundy, Harrison, and Harris report, and
your Committee is of opinion that the Gas Company
should have placed the whole of their books of account
in the hankie of these gentlemen, to have enabled them
to give fall explanations respecting those items.
With respeet to the tabulated statement of the quan-
tities and prices of gas consumed in the towns selected
by the Ural Company, shewing Ss 91d as the average price
against Se 41e1 which they state is charged at Stourbridge,
your Committee is of opinion that the towns selected by
the Uas Committee more fairly represent the average
price paid for gas, inasmuch as the live towns—Feterboi.
rough, Lancaster, Longtum Grimsby, and Rotherham—
quoted, are not BO conveniently situated for the supply of
coal, dz., or for the sale of products as the town of Stour.
bridge is, and some of them may possibly use all, or a
portion of cannel coal, which would of course produce a
better quality of gas, and considerably affect its price.
The company do not appear to have ascertained what '
kind of coal is used, nor the price paid for it.
In refeeince to the fifth paragraph of the Cas Corn. '
pany's letter of the 24th of February, it appears that the
company ere prepared to entertain a proposal for the
transfer of the present gas works on the basis of 10 and
71 per cent, respectively, on all stuns expended ui on
them in conformity with the Act. From such a proposal
as tia3 one would not believe it loasible that the funds
of this company ci old be in such a condition Bathe ninth
paragraph of the some letter would lead one to suppose.
foul paiagraph decdires th it no dividends had been de.
eitned upon the shares for the past three lialLyears, and
that for seven years previously only lire per cent. 11l
been paid. By comparing these two parts of the Gas
Lorupany's letter this question arises—if the company
be unable to pay dividends, and the works so UnreMUne.
naive, why do the representatives of the gas works ask
such a premium upon the outlay of their capital' There
seems to be but one conclusion to this apparent anomaly
widen is that while the company is unable to pay divi.
deeds beyond rive per cent, the directors are evidently
waking large additions to their plant, and thereby yeaily
increasing the worth of their shares at the expense it

the rateisvers and consumers of gas within the town-
ship. Under these eireutilatances your Committee lius
been induced to re-consider the suggestion made to this
Board in itis repoit of the 16th of January, in reference
to the eiection of new gas works for the town, in confor-
mity with Schedule A of the Stourbridge Improvement
Act, ltditi. With the, view your committee has made h
somber of calculations upon the probable expense sod
general utility of such an undertaking. It has been cal.
ciliated by au eminent gas engineer that to supply gas to
the district which is row being supplied by the present
Gas CaMpany, would require a plant and works to the
• value of £1.0,000. From this, as a basis of calculation,
we may deduce with some degree of certainty the prob.
-" . • .