The Portland daily press., 1893-05-18
PORTLAND GAS COMPANY.
Annual Meeting and Election of Officers
Yesterday.

on Temple street yesterday dItefHooH DIT
o'clock. Besides the directors who We're
also provided with proxies there Were
present Messrs. W. R. Wood and Geo.
HI. Starr of the stockholders.
President Dayeis presented his report
which was accepted. This is it:
The amount of gas consumed and paid
for the past year is 51,710, $50 cubic feet,
gain of about 100000 feet over the pre-
ceding year.
We have 3,065 consumers, gain of 80.
sos feet of in. m ain pipe were laid on
Neal street.
$50 feet of in. on Chadwick street.
61S feet of ia. on Congress street to
Eastern Promenade.
422 feet of 5 in. on Congress street east
of Washington street.
ITO feet of 3 in. on the Western
Promenade
Thirty new service pipes have been
put in.
1895 bushels of coke have been sold.
some breeze, and all the tar made. The
net receipts from these by-products
amount to about $14,000.0O, gain of
about So, 900 over last year.
We have also sold 81 gas ranges and II
gas u0dtlHS STOVES at cOSU.
The insurance and renewal funds of
the company have accumulated until
there is enough of each in the Judgment
OF the directors to secure against con-
tingencies and to provide for ext raordi-
nary renewals and repairs.
A request has been urged on beh alf of
the city that special dividend be made
from these funds. The directors de-
clined to comply, believing that the sew
eral funds are not too large, and that the
customary dividends, with such assur-
ance of their continuing as these funds
give, would be more for the int crest of
the stockholders in the long run.
The insurance fund is from the accu-
mutations of some 25 to 80 years of sums
carried to it each year in lieu of insur-
ance premiums. These sums have been
well invested, and the interest com
pounded every six months The fund
belongs to the stockholders as they took
the risks, and it operates as free policy
for the future.
Owing to the care and skill of our en-
gineer, Mr.. Yorke, and to good fortune,
we have escaped thus far the dangers
from fire, explosions. and the various
other risks incidental to our business.
and which have befallen many other
gas companies, but it would not be safe
to rely upon the continuance of such i'm
munity, and this fund is needed for as
Surance.
The extraordinary renewals of their
plants by gas companies, although the
result of constant wear and tear, come
at long intervals. Instead of an annual
charge for depreciation, it was our Gus
tom to carry an estimated amount from
time to time to a renewal fund. BY the
same careful management our old plant
has been made to last much longer than
the ordinary term. The fthd has in
creased at compound interest and by
the appreciation of investments
while not dollar has been lost.
But the time has come in which many
expensive renewals must be made.
A new holder, new benches, new en-
CINE, and extraordinary repairs on .our
buildings and wharf will have to be
made. These improvements will be
commenced soon, but will extend into
next year. 1t is not easy to estimate the
cost accurately. About twenty years
ago such general renewal was COM
pleted at a cost of about $685. 900.
Our engineer estimates that the pro-
posed renewals will cost considerably
less. We shall know more certainly af-
ter they are made.
The extra dividends declared in the
past were not from the profits of gas
making alone, but were largely from
sales of land, from interest and from
the rise in investment securities-espec-
tally in United States bonds of different
issues. and in city bonds. There was
some reason in calling for special divi-
dends of profits so earned, but they have
been more than covered by such diyi-
n do IND 1ar CD foo
that in case it shall prove that the
amount of our reserved funds is more
than sufficient for their several purposes,
| and in case the income from what may
remain of them, together with the profits
from any increase of consumption will
enable us to declare the usual dividends,
that then the city as well as the other
stockholders ought to be content.
As the city has discontinued the use
of gas, substituting electric light wher-
ever practicable, and as it is the largest
stockholder in our company, it is nat
ural that those in charge of its interests
wish for larger dividends rather than a
lower price, but as they have transferred
to the sinking fund their 100 shares of
stock at 800 share, the par value being
$50, they may on the whole consider it
as well not to weaken the security by an
extraordinary dividend out of assets on
which such a valuation must have been
founded.
One price for gas has always been fair
compared with other companies having
like facilities, and in proportion to the
consumption. During the civil war it
was notraised SO soon nor so high as by
most of them, and it has been lowered as
fast from time to time.
The use Of water gas by so many COM
panies has increased the value of our
residual products and some reductions
have been made in other ways in the
cost of gas to US. Our net price is there
fore to be reduced to $1.5o per thousand,
which we think will compare favorably
with that of other companies.
One item of cost is a city tax amount
ing to II cents per thousand feet of gas
sold. This is much higher than is paid
by any other company within my knowl-
edge. The average in Massachusetts, is
| six and eight-tenths cents.
1t is to be considered that ours is a
manufacturing business, and that in case
oh +oIa1 Ia Ia,