CHRISTCHURCH GAS COMPANY.

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 12

CHRISTCHURCH GAS COMPANY.

The revenue account of the Christchurch Gas Company for the year ended 31st December shows that £183,504 Is lid was realised from the sale of gas, coke, tar, etc., and that after meetiDg expenses aamounting to £161,232 11s 2d (including £70,029 10s 9d for materials, £53,863 13s 6d for wages, and £14,265 16s 5d for depreciation), there was a balance of £22,----271 10s 9d, which is taken into credit in the profit and loss account. This sum, added to the-carry-forward from last year (£7813 2s lid), enables the 8 per cent, dividend to be paid, absorbing £23,518 4s lOd, and leaves a carry-forward to the current year of £G566 8s lOd. That is thj course which the directors recommend in their sixty-fourth annual report, which 6tates: — "Considerable progress has been made since last year in many directions. Main extensions for the year have totalled ten and a half miles, of which seven miles form part of the trunk main extension scheme adopted' to improve the supply to outlying suburbs in which the demand has rapidly increased of late years. Five hundred and seventy-three new consumers have been added, making a total of 23,085. We have still a most satisfactory demand for gas cookers, 1634 having been fixed during the year, and our sales of gas wiow a steady increase. The renewals and extensions to the manufacturing plant at the works, referred to in our last report, have been completed. The first section of the new retort benches in the horizontal retort house have been erected, and are in operation; the material for the second section is now under order. The new exhausters, condensers, and washers have been erected, arid are.working most satisfactorily. Liberal provision for depreciation has been made, £14,265 16s 5d having been charged against revenue. 'To meet the cost of the extensions in both the manufacturing and distributing plants and provide for future requirements, your directors decided to make a further issue of 100,000 shares, which were offered to shareholders in the proportion of one share to eacli three shares held; the issue was over-subscribed, but your directors decided not to allot the whole of the additional share's applied for, but to allot on the basis of the quota to which shareholders were entitled. The total allotted was therefore 94,330 shares, leaving a small balance of 5070 shares available for issue as required. Your directors recommend the payment of a dividend of 4 per cent., making, with the interim dividend already paid, 8 per cent, for the year, and to carry forward the balance of "£6,560 8s 10d."'