Morning journal and courier., 1880-03-12
these streets by the present water and gas

don't see any need of new company. To Judge Stoddard the witness said 1t was not necessary to open the streets to make connections with the water and gas mains, as the connections were made as far as the curb. Dr. Charles A. Lindsley was called. He said he was member of the State Board of Health and health officer of the city of New Haven. He said he had been using gas of | the old company for 8 quarter of century, and was perfectly satisfied with it. He | thought the digging up of the streets would | be dangerous to the public health The l loosiag of the ground around the pipes al- ready laid would be apt to cause breaking and l consequent leakage in the mains. Where gas comes in contact with the roots of the trees l it ultimately destroys them. Another thing | that would fear is that should there be two sets of pipes laid and there should be leak age, it would be difficult to decide which pipe was leaking, and the result would be that the public health would suffer. The upturning of new earth, as is well known, is also detrimen- tai to public health. The doctor cited nu- merous instances in proof of the assertion that malarial diseases were always prevalent l when the earth was disturbed to any great ex- tent.
 A. J. Beers, of New Haven, was called. He said he was Q consumer of gas. He signed the petition for new company, he said, but after more mature consideration he made up his mind that it would not be well ts have the streets dug up.
 Prof. w. G. Mixter was called and said think the quality of gas in New Haven good. It appears to me better than gas have seen in other cities Have used gas in Leipsic and Berlin, and think the gas of New Haven equal to either of those cities. Have inspe cted the gas of the New Haven company and at pres ent it is little over twenty candle power. Cross. examination by Judge Stoddard- Witness said that during the past four weeks he had inspected the gas, and the lowest he | H. highest was 21 6-1O. About a year and half ago, when he inspected the gas, it was about eighteen candle power. To Governor Ingersoll-The day when the candle power was so low was when there was an accident 50 the works.
 A. B. Slater was called. He said he lived in Providence and was secretary and treasu- Ter of the Providence Gas Company. We have had an opposition gas company in Prov idence. Think the charter was obtained seven or eight years ago. The Gale & Rand was the process used by the opposition. The old company had about 120 miles of pipe laid when the new company was started. The new company laid about IS miles of pipe in the streets where the most consumption was. At that time we had about ten thou sand consumers and the new company got away 400 of them. The result was GOO in stock and cash. have never known any other result than combination of compa- nies where two companies have been compet- ing. This of course causes an increase of capital, and larger price has to be charged in order to pay interest on the capital invested. When tho two companies were in operation, complaints were sometimes made of leakages to one office and sometimes to the other, and it was only by digging that it could be found out whose pipes were leaking. So far as my observation of water gas goes, should not be willing to recommend my company to adopt it. On the cross examination witness said the present company had two gas works in opera tion. In one they used coal exclusively, and in the other they used coal with small addition of naphtha. When the new company started we were selling gas at $2.25. We had sold gas as low as $2. The price is now $22O. In reply to Governor Ingersoll, MT. Slater said he would not have gas over IF or IS candle power on account of it's liability to smoke.
 Daniel Trowbridge, president of the New Haven Gas Light Company, was called. In reply to Governor Ingersoll, Mir. Trowbridgs said: I have been president of the New Ha- ven Gas Light Company since 1872. The di- rectors of the company are Daniel Trowbridge, Harmanus M. Wslch, Charles R. Ingersoll John s. Beach, Prof. B. Silliman, Prof. G. J. Brush, John B. Darlington, A. W. DeForest, Francis Wayland. There are 345 stockholders, 275 of whom reside in the State. Of these 175 are women and children. We have 5000 metres. The capital stock of the company is $1 1000, ,000. In 1875 the property was reap praised and it was increased $15O, 900, and in addition $50, 900 was paid in in cash, making $200, ,000. The lower works of nine acres of made land were reappraised The appraisers were H. M. Welch, John W. Mansfield and Morris Tyler. In the appraisement the works were put in at their cost. believe it was an honest appraisement, as the real estate had increased in value. The dividend to the stockholders is less than ten per cent. Ten J--Tz-- eriDg the risks that gas companies have to run. The policy of the company has been to treat the public fairly and give them good gas at 8 price as low as possible. Our intercourse with the public generally has been most pleas ant, and we have never had any controversy with them. There has never been any ex- tended complaint by individuals. The oom- pany has always met the city officials in sat- isfactory manner as regards price of gas. We have means in our office of satisfying the public in regard to the working of the metre. If there are any complaints made about metres we at once test them without charge. We have had frequent offers of new patents buy the right of the Gwinn-Harris process, for which we paid $6,OOO.
 MT. Trowbridgs here gave history of the Fair Haven Gas Company, and the purchase of it by the New Haven Company. It was then, he said, that the Gwinn-Harris process
  satisfied with it and We gave it up. never heard MT. Cox say at the time that we did not give the new process 8 fair trial. I did not know of the organization of the Municipal Company until saw it advertised in the New Haven papers. I received telegram on the night that l saw the advertisement, from Thomas K. Lees president of the New York Gas Company. The dispatch was here pre- sented and read by MT. Ingersoll as follows
 NEW YoRK Oct % 1870 Daniel Trowbridge, President New Haven Gas Co.,:
 Opposition have agreed to buy Municipal patents for New Haven. hold refusal until Saturday at your service. Gan help you in the matter2 THOMAS K. LEES.
 Mir. Trowbridge continued. I went at once to New York and saw MT. Lees with whom I was well acquainted. He (Lees) could not, he said, find Mir. Stearns who controlled the pat ents, but promised to sec him and inform me what he said about the price, etc. A day or two later received @ second dispatch as fol- lows:
 NEW YORK, Got. 25, 1879. Daniel Trovbridge, President New Haven
 Gas Co.,:
 Stearns says his lowest price is $75,OoO. He will be st my office at II tomorrow. Deliver night. THOMAS K. LEES.
 Mir. Trowbridge continued. I saw the di- rectors in regard to the matter and it was de- cided to have nothing to do with the matter. Under these instructions then wrote to MT. Lees declining to negotiate at the price named and nothing farther was heard upon the mat ter.
 On the cross-examination by Judge Stod- dard, MT. Trowbridge said the stock had been ''watered" as follows: In 1852, $1O,O 1859, 1925, GOO; 1875, $15O.o 1000, making $1S5, 900 in all. We paid out for improvement of land on our water front about $75, ,OOO, which was derived from the earnings of the company. We paid $2O, GOO for the Fair Ha- ven works, which were paid for from the earn- ings of the company. We also bought $150,- 900 worth of Government bonds, which we now have. We also bought the 'tsteam heat- ing" charter about two months ago, which was paid for from the earnings. For this we paid $10.000. Our building. on Crown street cost something over $50, 900. This came from the earnings of the company. A portion of the building is occupied by the New Haven Water Company, the Gas Com pany have their office there and there is one family living in the building. We have had no trouble with the newspapers of late years. None of the Register Publishing Company are stockholders, or any of the family of the late Minott A. Osborn. John B. Burlington, of the COURIER, is stockholder, and has been