The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-14 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. We have already stated the-points
of difference between the committee and the gas
companies, which rendered nugatory the attempt at
legislation on the subject this session. After de-
tailing the proceedings before the committee, the

report proceeds as follows :
" Your committee do not recognise as just the
construction which the companies appear to place

upon the combined operation of the two acts of 1817
and 1860. When the act of 1817 was passed, it was
intended for the regulation, not of thirteen companies
in London acting upon an exclusive system, but for

he regulation of all the companies which might be

established throughout the country, and which ii
general would be subject not only to the limit of
the act in respect of dividend, but also to the com.

petition of other companies in the same districts.
When the Act of 1860 was passed, the metropolitan
companies had not generally attained the limit of 10
per cent. ; and the possibility of that limitation being
interpreted to convey a right to a statutory' divi-
dend of 10 per cent., may not have been as clearly
understood as from recent experience and discussion
is now the case. This view has, however, 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 thvnactment
of 1860 in that respect without consent of the cora-

pauies, they do feel bound to be careful that they do
not strengthen by any proceeding of their own what
they consider to be a departure from the intention
with which the limit of 10 per cent. was originally
prescribed by Parliament. Substituting, in the
case of the metropolis, effective regulation for
that competition which they believe was contem-

plated by Parliament when the Act of 1847 was
passed, they think that justice will be done between
the consumer on the one side and those who have
invested their capital on the faith of the legislation
of 1860 on the other, if in any future arrangement
a price be fixed, which will afford to the companies
a reasonable prospect of attaining, from time to
time, with due care and management, the maximum
dividend of the act upon the share capital which has
been already expended under the authority of Parlia-
ment ; but that the stimulus to due care and man-
agement will be unduly weakened, if they are
enabled to make good the deficiency of one year's
dividend by the surplus of another.

ct The reduction of price, under the bill, as

would have stood if the companies had accepted the
decision of the committee, would have been, as com-
pared with the prices of the Act of 1860, from 4s.
6d. for twelve candles, or 41d. per candle, to 3s. 9d.
for 10 candles, about 21d. per candle ; if compared
with the actual prices now charged by the companies
(except the South Metropolitan and Independent),
viz., 4s. for 14 candles, a reduction from aid. to
21d. nearly. The 3s. 9d, for 16 candles proposed
by the Board of Trade may be considered as nearly
equivalent to the 3s. 4d. charged by the last-men-
tioned companies for 14 candles. Besides this re-
duction, provision would have been made for im-
proved administration and reduced expenditure by
the amalgamation of the companies, for an efficient
audit of the accounts, for an effective supervision
of the working acid expenditure, for the abolition of
the system of back dividends, and for the payment
of penalties out of the sum divisible among the share-
holders. The advantages to result from these vari-
ous 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 insured by a system of administra-
tions under the superintendence of the same hoard.
To these advantages your committee consider that
the consumer is entitled ; and they recommended
that nothing less should be required as the condi-
tions of any settlement which may leave in the hands
of the companies exclusively the future supply of
the metropolis.
"In conclusion, yOur committee have now to
repeat the expression of their decided opinion, 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 be at present enjoys
with respect to the supply of gas to the metropolis.
The difficulty with which your committee have had