THE GAS CONTROVERSY. PROTEST BY THE MAYOR OF MIRAMAR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 128, 26 November 1907, Page 8

THE GAS CONTROVERSY. PROTEST BY THE MAYOR OF MIRAMAR.

3i seems thai the Mayor of Miramar (Mr. Crawford) looks askance ' on the **"gas -clause" in tfie Reserves and other Lauds Disposal and Public Bodies Empowering Bill. He has given notice to move at the meeting of the Borough ■Council on .Thursday night.: — -Tthat this council emphatically eaters its protest against the passing of clause 25 of the Bill, which gives gas companies power to break" jro streets without the consent of t£e local authority being tirst obtained- This council is of opinion that gas companies already have sufficient powers under the existing cnactaents, and that _ this farther concession is far irom being in the iest -interests of the community. That -a. copy of this resolution be sftnt to tlie Premier, asking that no consent be given by the Grov4rnor- j in-Comicil to gas companies to do j works under the powers of this clause -without first communicating - wJfeh the local authorities concerned." " 2Mb view tallies exactly with the onn iesd by the Mayor of Wellington (the Honi X. W. Hislop). !EHE COMPANY'S BIDE. MB. DBAS IS DEFENCE. '1 don't want to make a pun," confessed Mr- E. H. Dean, who has been acting as solicitor for the Wellington Gas Company, "but it seems to me that the Mayor has found a mare's- nest. Sis melodramatic description of his disxwery of clause 25 turns ont td be Glibertian in its humour, as everyone in; the_,ciiy could have learned about it front one of the morning papers. This reference was not very plain. It occupied a couple of lines in three an'J a half columns of miscellaneous Parliamentary news, thus : "Power is given io, tie Wellington Gas Company to extend its works to Miramar. Mr- Dean admitted that Mr. Hislop was usually fair, and therefore he thought it was a pity that there should -be any^ suspicion of his making political capital' at the expense of the Government and local members. There was -no extension of the privileges of the comjraay in any respect- All that had been done was to clear up a legal doubt as $0 whether power could be given to any gas company by the local authority to break up the streets of the borough. ,'Hjbere was a. bona fide doubt as yJ to tint power, and this clause cleared it ttp. , At present streets were broken up da% in Wellington city without comElaiit from anyone, and the length to c broken np in Miramar was 'only a lew chains. If there was not vested in any local body here either a' legal or moral right to -purchase or take ©•per gas companies' works, it followed that neither the city nor anybody else was damnified by the clause in question. " , Miramar must before long be brought into the city, and when that happened the gas company would have the right to break up streets there, as it had now in the city under its own statute. The clause merely gave this right in the suburb immediately. The gas company was not proposing to spend thousands of pounds for the fun of the thing. If -the city : owned the works it would be obliged to act as the gas company was doing-— erecting works away from the congested area of Courtenay-pltfce. Mr. Dean submitted that he could not understand the attitude of the Mayor of Miramar, for the Borough Council had repeatedly asked for an installation of gas in Miramar. In any case, the company could not sell a cubic foot of gas in Miramar without the consent of the council, even if the company acted upon the clause in question. He was afraid that the Mayor's motion would create a false impression that the council desired to use_ the giving of its consent to the laying ol a few pipes as a lever to obtain better terms out of the company. He did not. of course, impute | that motive, but the unfortunate impression might be created among the public, "finally, the Miramar Borough Council had nothing to prevent it from erecfing gas works itself whenever it chose. - Mr. Dean denied that the clause would nave the effect of hardening the price of the company's property in case tie city ever -stepped in to buy.