HASTINGS GAS SUPPLY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27169, 13 October 1953, Page 7

HASTINGS GAS SUPPLY

COMPANY TO CLOSE WORKS SUBSIDY DECISION GIVEN AMONG REASONS (New Zealand Press Association) NAPIER, October 12. The Napier Gas Company has decided to cease the manufacture and supply of gas within the borough of Hastings from January 31 next. This decision has been reached in spite of an offer from the Government of finance by way of a loan for the modernising of the Hastings retorts. The announcement that the company had been reluctantly compelled to take this step was made by the chairman of directors (Mr F. W. Browne) at the annual meeting of shareholders of the company in Napier today. The statement notified consumers that it would be necessary for them to make alternative arrangements for their cooking and water heating, and for any other purposes for which they now used gas supplied to them by the company. About 3000 consumers are believed to be affected.

Mr Browne said that the decision had been made because:—(l) the company’s manufacturing costs at Hastings exceeded the selling price of gas to the public as fixed by the Price Tribunal; (2) the Government’s subsidy of 2s a 1000 cubic feet, of which Is was used to reduce the price of gas to the consumer, was to be reduced by half from December 3, and would wholly cease on February 28. “Our losses at Hastings for the last financial year amounted to £5901 Is 6d, and it must be obvious to everyone that no business can continue to make losses of this magnitude,” Mr Browne said. The modernising of the Hastings retorts would cost about £20,000, and would take two years to finish. The company was grateful for the Government’s offer of a loan, but it could not see how the loan could be repaid or the losses recovered.