The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-09 00:00:00

The Supply of Gas to London.

A committee of the House of Commons has been
inquiring for the last fortnight into the question of
the supply of gas to the metropolis. This inquiry
has its origin in the introduction by the corporation
of London of a bill into Parliament authorising that
body to erect gas works, and supply the citizens with
gas, and which led the House of Commons to direct
that the subjec4-, as it affected not the City only but
the whole metropolis, should be inquired into.
Rightly to understand a question which is second
only to the supply of water, it may be as well to state
its present position. Gas-works have at various
times since the first discovery of gas as an illuminat-
ing power been established in different parts of Lon-
don, some, like the Imperial, having a very large dis-
trict, with works in different places, some, like the
Equitable, having two different districts unconnected;
and all more or less were at liberty to, and did, in fact,
compete with one another until the year 1860, and in
the City of London, in particular, an active com-
petition was carried on between the Great Central
Company and two other companies.
In that year, however, a bill was brought into
Parliament by the representatives of nearly all the
vestries of the metropolis to put some control upon
the gas companies in respect of the quality and
price of their gas, as to both of which loud com-
plaints had arisen. The gas companies were, how-
ever, too formidable for the parochial representa-
tives, and they succeeded in getting the bill turned
into law into a very different form to what it had
entered the House of Commons, and whilst pro-
fessing to be a settlement of the question it has, in
fact, in six years brought the whole subject again
before the public.
Without prejudging the decision of the com-
mittee, it may safely be said that the inquiry, as far
as it has gone, has established that London is sup-
plied with gas of a less illuminating power and at a
higher price than most other towns in England, that
this result has been brought about directly by the
provisions of the act of 1860, which absolutely put
a stop to all competition by dividing London into
districts to be served by a specified company, and
none other, but without laying down any unifor-
mity of price, so that a consumer in one district has
been paying more than another in a different dis-
trict, and the disproportion in the price charged for
the public lamps has been even greater than the
private consumer. The only check upon price was,
in fact, that after paying 10 per cent. dividend upon
their capital the consumers were entitled to a re-
duction out of any surplus profit, but as no care
whatever was taken to ascertain and define the
capital of each company, and as the companies were
entitled to make up the dividends of all back years
to the number of ten to the same rate, it is not sur-
nrising to learn that it is only under the pressure
of the attack of the corporation of London that any
reduction whatever has taken place ; in short, as
an example of the operation of the act, it may be
mentioned that the cost of public lighting in the
City was doubled.
Whilst London has been paying 4s. 6d. per 1000
cubic feet of gas giving an illuminating power
equal to 12 sperm candles, Manchester has been
paying only 3s. Gd. for the same quantity, giving
an illuminating power of 20 candles, and as what
the consumers buys is not gas but light it follows
that the price of an equal light has been in Man-
chester nearly one-half less than in London, or, in
other words, that 1850 feet of light have been
given for the same price as 1000 in London. Nor
is this all the difference between Manchester and
London : the cost of the public lighting in Man-
chester has been 255. a lamp against an average of
£5 in London, and beyond all this upwards of one
million of money has been spent in improvements
in the city of Manchester out of the profits of the
gas-works, and this in the face of the fact stated to
the committee by the town clerk of that city, that
whereas coke, the principal residual product of gas
manufacture, fetches in London more than half the
price of the coal in Manchester it is nearly un-
saleable.

It may well be asked how this result is brought
about, and the answer is that the supply of gas in
Manchester is where it ought to be in London, in
the hands of the municipality. Without adducing
the examples of other towns, it may be sufficient to
state that it was proved before the committee that
in one town in England, Walsall, the corporation
supply of gas to the citizens in direct competition
with one of the wealthiest companies in England,
obtain a handsome profit, and keep the price of gas
lower in the town than in any other district sup-
plied by the same company.
With these facts before them, the committee will
probably be puzzled what to recommend to the
House of Commons, so as to hold the scales even
between the gas companies and the public. On the
one side the corporation of London are asking to be
allowed to establish gas-works down the river away
from the metropolis altogether, wherewith to supply
the citizens with gas; on the other hand the compa-
nies are appealing to the committee not to allow a
competition the results of which they justly fear;
whilst a third source of embarrassment arises from
the fact that every gas company in London has a bill
before Parliament this session to increase their capi-
tal and extend their works, and every one of which
is opposed by the localities where the new works are
proposed to be erected. It is true a Minister of the
Crown seems to think it a small evil to have two
large gas concerns established within 500 yards of
Victoria Park ; read St. James's for Victoria, and a
different view might be taken of such a proposal. At
all events, the inhabitants of London generally take
a different view of the proximity of gas works, and
the explosion at Vauxhall has taught them that the
sooner they are all removed out of town the better.
A careful consideration of all the circumstances
would seem to indicate that an opportunity such as
may not occur again now presents itself for dealing
with this great question upon a comprehensive basis.
There exists no municipality in this metropolis ex-
cept the corporation of the City. Let the committee
propose to them and to the gas companies, who are
all before them on this inquiry, that the one should
buy and the other sell the whole of their concerns as
they stand, the purchase money to be a debenture
stock, charged upon the gas works and gas revenue,
and redeemable by annual drawing at a premium
out of one-half the surplus revenue, the other half
to be applied in moving the gas works out of London
and consolidating them in three or four large esta-
blishments. As the City would step into a working
concern, it would be a perfectly safe operation for
them, and its immediate result to the public would
be that the gas works at the Temple and by the
Houses of Parliament could within 12 months be
moved away altogether, and those proposed at Vic-
toria Park would become unnecessary.
To the gas shareholders it would be equally bene-
ficial, for if they had a five per cent. debenture
stock redeemable at £lO per cent. premium, it would
probably be of the same market value as their exist-
ing shares with all the risk and uncertainty attend-
ing their property.
As gas is by far the cheapest light that can be
purchased its certain reduction in price under the
management of the corporation, as one concern,
would take it into the home of the working classes,
where it is not found at present, and so largely in-
crease the consumption.
An objection might be raised by that part of
London in the City that their interests would -not
be cared for ; but if the City was bound to supply
gas outside the city at the same price as within the
metropolis would have a sufficient protection.

RE-OPENING OF THE BRITISH MusEum.--Yester-
day the British Museum re-opened after a week's closure
for the usual thorough cleansing of the rooms and galle-
ries. During this and the three following months the
public will bo admitted from 12 to 6 o'clock, in addition to
the ordinary days of admission—Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays,