The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-29 00:00:00

GAS -COMPANIES.

The gas movement is gradually but steadily worm•
ing itself into the most vital interests and anxieties,
and resolutions, of the people, far and Hide.[_'rider
this now well-recognised title, the Bedford Tinteg
intimates that the price at Bedford has been re/Weed
from 105. to 7s. 61. A correspondent, " 7.,C-172
informs us that the movement is at work in
Slough, where Mr. J. C. Buckmaster has been
lecturing and advising the Sloughites to take
so safe an investment into their own ha,nds
ere the Great Western monopolize it, (by
the establishment of some coke manufactory.
we presume). His hearers took the hint, and
next day called a meeting and opened a share-list
with 500/. on the spot. In consequence of the im-
portant and significant movement of certain manu-
facturing and other firms towards the manu.cacture
of their own gas, the Lincoln Gas Company were
again lately urged by some of Weir own sharehohiers
to authorize "a still further redo et,:on of the pr) ee
as a blot) to the cowumer, are! a matter ~r
policy, to prevent private enteet, rize in the
manufacture." The Winchester conNainers ca, -
not see Ally they should be called ui . n to pay
the enormous price of 1 Is., while at SoLethamptc.in
the charge is now reduced to Gs., and this i 5 likely
hence to be " the win!er of their discontent," whicl
will be followed by a summer of cemparative satis-
faction. The Romses gas consumers have .%;efei
grumblieg and aggrieved, net only at the enorm.lty
of the pricy of their gas-12s. 6d. per I,ooo—bL
at being obliged to pay mere for it than the commi.-
si,Jners for lighting the town do, The commi--
sioners have power, probably ; they are united k
an association, and might soon erect gas works for
themselves. The British Branch Company have
been feasting several of the large consumers at
Norwich !—as if the Norwich public were not the
largest consumers in the town. For public companies
at Doncaster—in whom even the Doncaster Gus
Company seem still to stand in salutary awe—
the price charged is only 3s. Ofd. per 1,000
feet", But why not regard the public itself Ca
a large company, and charge them all the same ?
It is indeed a company alone —a league th-4
will do. Why, the average prices charged to public
companies almost everywhere else, significantly point
in the same direction. Public companies at Bradford,
Barnsley, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds,
Pontefract, Rotherham, Sheffield, Wakefield, &c.,
pay very little more than at Doncaster, viz., 3s. 3id.
per 1,000.---A new consumers' company, by the
way, was some time ago determined on at Belper,
where the price to private consumers ' has
been 9s. per 1,000 cubic feet. This is one way to
convert small consumers into large ones, only they
must feast themselves. Safer investments than many
such projects must inevitably prove to be, in prepara-
tion for the coming general illumination, cannot well
be conceived. As the Albion reminds its readers,
the committe of the Guardian Consumer's Company
hare already saved nearly 50,0001 per annum to the
people of Liverpool—ay, while even greatly improv•
ing the acknowledged prospects of those very corn-
parties from whose pockets the 50,0001. per annum
have been taken or withheld !—The Builder.