The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-03 00:00:00

THE GAS QUESTION IN THE CITY.

Mr. GREY, the chairman of the City of London Gas Com-
pany, waited upon the commission, and said he was very
sorry to be obliged to disavow an act of one of his officers,
for whom he entertained the greai:st esteem. Mr. Millar,
the secretary of the company, had sOictioned, upon behalf
of the company, the application of the carburating process
to the public lamps by the commission, it they felt so dis-
posed. He considered that if he consented to that he would
be placing the interests of his company in great heel. In
the first place, the price of naphtha was fluctuating; and
could be procured from 3s. to Bs. the gallon; and if that .at
3s. were used it was possible that serious complaints would
bo made, for which the company would have to answer, and
he was not at all inclined to take upon himself the fulfil-
ment of a contract giving the power to the commission.
Tho CHAIRMAN asked Mr. Grey if he was aware that the
court had accepted his tender for the 3ft. burner, and that
they had resolved that the risk, if any, should be borne en-
tirely by the commission ; and that all he was required to
do was to supply the 3ft. burner within the terms of the
Act of Parliament.

Mr. GREY said ho could nct consent to have anything
to do with their burners.

A communication from the Great Central Gas Company
was then read, which stated that although they had not
sent in their tender according to the specification, and had
omitted to tender for a three-feet burner—as the court had
altered the specification, and resolved to take.all risk upon
themselves, they were quite willing to tender for the three-
feet burner, and asked to be allowed to do so under the
altered specifications.
A report from the General Purposes Committee, to whom
it was referred at the last court to consider the tender of the
United Kingdom Carburating Gas Company was then read,
which stated that the company had offered to carburate the
gas supplied to the public lamps in the City according to the
conditions in the specification, at 17s. 6d. each burner per
annum, provided the contract entered into be for not less
than 500 lamps, which they had subsequently amended, by
reducing the charge to 16s. per burner if the process be ap-
plied to 1,700 or thereabouts. Under these circumstances
the committee recommended that the tender be accepted,
and that the carburating process be applied to all the
lamps in the district lighted by the City of London Gas
Company, the specification having been altered so as to
enable the commission to terminate the contract at any time
by giving them 14 days' notice.
Dr. ABRAHAM fully concurred in the report. lie said Mr.
Grey must be perfectly aware that if the carburating pro-
cess should fail the City Gas Company would not be placed
under any responsibility ; and it seemed very extraordinary
that they should send in a tender for supplying three-feet
burners at £3 ils., and five-feet at £5 55., and then to go to
the court and attempt to dictate to them whether they should
carburate the supply or not, and so save the difference be-
tween £3 lls, and £5 ss. Tkat was only another feature of
the confederacy that had been entered into between the gas
companies. When Mr. Millar was there on the last occasion
the resolution was read to him, and he agreed to it on the
part of the company. He hoped the court would compel the
company t o fulfil the contract, and if they refused to supply
them measures would be taken to compel them to do their
duty. Tho long and short of the matter was that the gas
companies were afraid that the carburating process would
lessen the supply of gas, and so lessen the profits. He hoped
the report would be agreed to, and they would be made to
perform their duty.

Mr. Deputy HARRISON said that the subject of Mr. Grey's
communication and the communication from the Central
Gas Company were not on the paper of business, and there-
fore he contended that they could not then be discussed,
inasmuch as every member of the commission ought to be
first made acquainted with it. The only thing that could be
fully gone into was the report from the committee, which
he hoped the court would agree to.
Mr. Deputy ELLIOTT then rose to address the court, and
said they had got into two difficulties, when he was inter-
rupted by the chairman, who suggested that all strangers
should withdraw, and the court was accordingly cleared,
and on the doors being re-opened Mr. Shepton, the chair-
man of the Curburating Company, was informed that the
report of the committee was agreed to, and that his tender
was accepted.