The Express.
London, England, 1867-08-15 00:00:00

THE METROPOLIS GAS QUESTION.

The select committee of the House of Commons
on the Metropolis Gas Bill has presented its report to
parliament. The report says :—' Your committee do not
recognise as just the construction which the compliancy
appear to place upon the combined operation of the two
acts of 1847 and 1860. When the act of 1847 was passed,
it was intended for the regulation not of 13 companies
in London acting upon an exclusive system, but for the
regulation of all the companies which might be ena.
blished throughout the country; and which in general
would be 'object not only to the limit of the act, in
respect of dividend, but also to the competition of
other compsniss in the same districts. When the act
of 1800 was passed the metropolitan companies ILI
not enerally attained the limit of 10 per cent. ; and the
possibility of that limitation being interpreted to convey a
right to • 'statutory' dividend of 10 per cent. may aot
have been as clearly understood as from recent enure:is
and discussion is now the case. This view boa, howem,
been very distinctly presented to your committee in the
course of the present inquiry, and while they do not feel
themselves at liberty to interfere with the enactments of
1860 in that respect, without the consent of the con.
panics, they do feel bound to be careful that they do
not strengthen by any proceeding of their own, mut
they consider to be • departure from the intention with
which the limit of 10 per cent. was originally prescribed
by parliament. Substituting, in the case of the metro-
polis, effective regulation for that competition which they
believe was contemplated by parliament when the Art
of 1847 was passed, they think that justice will be thee
between the consumer on one side end those who have in.
vested their capital on the faith of the legislation of 184
on the other, If in any future arrangement • price be
fixed, which will afford to the companies • reasonable
prospect of attaining, from time to time, with due cue
and management, the maximum dividend of the act twos
the share capital which has been already expended under
the authority of parliament ; but that the stimulus to due
care and management will be unduly weakened, if
they are enabled to make good the deficiency of one
year's dividend by the surplus of another. The re.
duction of price, under the bill, as it would have stool
if the companies had accepted the decision of the
committee would have been, as compared with the
prices of the act of 1860, from 4a. Gil. for twelve candles,
or 44d. per candle, to :3a. 9d. for 16 candles, or about4l.
per candle ; if compared with the actual prices no.
charged by the companies (except the South Metropolitan
and Independent), via., 4s. for 14 candles, a reduction
from 34d. to 2,id. nearly. The 3s. lid. for 16 candles pro-
posed by the Board of Trade may be considered as nearly
equivalent to the 3a. 4d. charged by the two last-men-
tioned companies for 14 candles. Besides this redact*
provision would have been made for improved administra-
tion and reduced expenditure by the amalgamation of the
companies, for an efficient audit of the accounts, for an
effective supervision of the working and expenditure,
for the abolition of the system of back dividends, and
for the payment of penalties out of the sum divisible
among the shareholders. The advantages to result
from these various amendments of the act of 1860 would
have been secured to the consumer by a periodical revision
of price, through the agency of arbitrators appointed by
the Board of Trade : and the purity of the gas would have
been ensured by a system of administration under the
superintendence of the same board. To these advantages
your committee consider that the consumer is entitled;
and they recommend that nothing lees should be required
as the conditions of any settlement which may leave in the
bands of the companies exclusively the future supply of the
metropolis. In conclusion, your committee have now to repeat
the expression°, their decidedopinion, that either by the way
of regulation, or by the way of an independent supply, the
consumer is entitled to a far more efficient control than he
at present enjoys with respect to the supply of gas to the
metropolis."