LIGHT AND HEAT

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 31 August 1928, Page 10

LIGHT AND HEAT

GAS AT A LUNCHEON Gas was the chief topic discussed yesterday at a luncheon given by tho Wellington Gas Company to Mr. F. J. West, C.8.E., of Manchester, chairman and managing director of West's Gas Improvement Company, Ltd., Manchester. Mr. West, said Sir Harold Beauchamp, chairman, is a native of! Manchester, was Lord Mayor, and is now an alderman of that famous industrial city. Of local interest, said the chairman, is the fact that the general manager of West's in the United States and Canada, is a New Zealander, Mr. Frank Kennedy, moreover, Mr. James Kennedy, his father, who had been niana■gerof the Greymouth works for fortytwo years, was present at the luncheon an honoured guest, and his son was Mr. M. J. Kennedy, manager of the Wellington Gas Company. Koferring to the Glover-West_ system of carbonisation, Sir Harold said since 1908 the number of plants constructed was 240, with a total capacity of 365 million feet of gas per day, and. of these plants 30 were in America. In New Zealand there ■ .were five such plants, and the Wellington Company had an installation of 48 retorts with a daily capacity of one and a half million cubic feet. This plant (erected ,by Mr. Frank Kennedy six months

Lafayette (London) i'hoto.

ahead of time) produced in 1926j 663 million cubic feet or a daily average of 1,800,000 cubic feet. The record make of gas for one day was 2,350,000 cubic feet. The board took a bold step in ordering the plant at peak prices, but it had been in operation for six years, and so far no repairs had been necessary. ■ The total daily capacity of carbonising was now four million feet. The company' had made eight reductions in the.price of gas during the past five years. • ■ , ■ Eeferring to relations of the- company with its employees, Sir Harold said superannuation inaugurated by life insurance, payable at 05 or ■ previous :to death had been successful..The cost 'to-the company this year would be & 2(500. There .were 169 employees in the scheme with a total life'cover of £112,000. The; company subsidises £1 for £1 tho Sick Benefit Society of the employees. The members pay Gd per week and receive sick pay of £2 per week for 13 weeks. There are 180 members, and the annual cost to the company is £234. Eelations between, the company and its employees •;were ; .most satisfactory. •• In responding to his health, Mr. West expressed the great pleasure he had in visiting New Zealand—a pleasure, he was glad to say was travelling with him.- He Preferred rto the alertness and enterprise of British engineers generally, but his- remarks bore principally on developments in tho gas section in which Great Britain was well to the fore. '•• Ho. concluded .by -acknowledging the hospitality he had met with in New Zealand, and in." ■•particular the kindness' of the '.directors of the-Wel-lington Gas Company,. Mr. E. Babbage, New Zealand representative of AVest's Company, proposed " the Wellington Gas Company," to which Mr. Gerald FitzGerald responded. ■ Mr. AVcst lpaves for Christchurck on Saturday and proceeds to Dunediu to open there the new plant erected by his firm.. ' ,