The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-25 00:00:00

sale of the-coke. Mr. Smith, of the Windsor Iron
Foundry (Liverpool), spoke in favour of the new company.
A third company would cause a real not a sham competi-
tion, and the public would be better served.—The chair-
man, in addressing the learned counsel, desired to know
if a compromise could not be come to ; that is, whether
the old companies could not make such a reduction in the
price of gas—a liberal and substantial reduction—as
would justify the committee in preventing the establish-
ment of a third company, and entailing the necessity of
breaking up the streets, laying down a third set of mains,
and occasioning various other annoyances and incon-
veniences to which it was unnecessary to allude more par-
ticularly. Unless this was done, the committee was pre-
pared to go on with the case, and to decide upon Mr.
Cox's plan, with which they had every reason to be satis-
fied, and to believe that perfectly responsible persons were
ready to carry it outiin the manner that gentleman had
detailed. He (the chairman) had received a communica-
tion, purporting to be an offer on the part of the Dale-
street Company, but it did not satisfy the committee.
The reduction must be liberal, otherwise the preamble of
the Guardian Company's Bill would be declared to be
proved, if the remaining evidence did not upset that al-
ready adduced. After repeating this advice several times
he gave the parties until twelve o'clock next day to make
a proposition, and if it were not such as the interests of the
public demanded,. the case would be fully proceeded with.
On Friday the committee again sat. All the counsel
for the various parties were for the first time present-
The rooms were crowded to, excess by the parties inter-
ested.—Mr. Slade, for the Liverpool Gas Company, read
his proposition, to the effect,—that their committee has
maturely considered their proposal of yesterday, that the
existing shareholders in the company should be allowed
to take the whole of the new capital at 7 per cent., with
the object of ascertaining whether they could prudently
take such a capital at a still lower rate of interest, and
they had concluded that they could not—especially front
the state of the money market,_ and the fact that the
per centage named was not sufficient to pay the dividends
on the present capital. They therefore urged their pro-
position of the day before on the further consideration of
the committee then sitting. To meet the wishes of the com-
mittee with regard to a modified plan ',of raising capital,
they proposed that to the new capital should be given a
dividend of 71 per cent., and appropriating one-half of such
capital, and selling one-half, or appropriating one-third,
and selling two-thirds ; and these modes they respectfully
submitted to the committee ; that if the committee
I thought the new shareholders ought not to have a pro-
spective advantage, but that all the new capital should be
sold by auction, they were prepared to accede to their
wishes, influenced in no small degree by the belief that it
would afford satisfaction to the Town Council, who rep-
resented a large body of consumers, and meet the object
of the petition against the bill.—Mr. Austin (for the Corporation) said his clients would be satisfied with the
last portion of the proposition.—Mr. Sergeant Wranghant
proposed (for the Guardian Con any,)-Ist, That each
company should have their bill., with power to raise
£lOO-,000 each, at 71 per cent. 2dly, That the capital to
be raised (of £2C0,000) be divided equally between the
Dale-street Company and the Guardian Gas Company..
Maximum interest on new capital to be 71 percent. Maxi_ mum price, when the consumption arrives at 250 millions
to be 45., when 300 millions the maximum price be 3s Bd-
-Mr. Lace, chairman of the Corporation Company, said
that this would entail a loss to the public of 21 per cent-
-The room was cleared for about an hour, and when
opened, Mr. Wm. Brown came out and assured the
promoters of the Guardian Bill that nearly the whole
committee were completely against them, and that all he
and Mr. Brotherton could do, with any likelihood of prac-
tical good, was to propose that the Guardian Company
should have their expenses allowed. To this proposition
the Guardian Company were of course obliged to submit,
and accordingly withdrew their bill.—The chairman said
the committee would pass the preamble of the Old Com-
pany's Bill, on the understanding that the whole of the
new capital will be raised by auction ; that the £200,000
will be sold by auction, with the precautions necessary to
ensure the best possible price to the public; that the
maximum price of the gas be fixed at 4s. 6d., with a power
of revision by the recorder.—The committee then pro-
ceeded with the clauses of the Dale-street Company's Bill.
—The decision come to created the most extraordinary
surprise amongst the audience, by whom it was most
distinctly understood that the chairman's suggestion of
the previous day, as to a decided reduction in the rnaximmu
price of gas would be fully acted upon, especially as the
evidence in favour of the Guardian Company was on all
hands admitted to be founded on sound and conclusive
principles.