GAS COMPANIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1942, Page 7

GAS COMPANIES

UNFAIR COMPETITION

(P.A.)

AUCKLAND, This Day,

"In the near future the Government may find itself in an awkward plight through inability to meet increasing demands for power, heat, and light,"' said Mr. V. J. Lamer, chairman of directors, at the annual meeting of the Auckland Gas Company. "This situation, should it arise, might easily have been minimised by the Government adopting a generous policy in regard

to the gas industry." v The industry, in his opinion, should be treated as regards taxation in the same manner as its competitors, the electric power boards. That was to say, gas companies should be placed in a separate category as were Public Service undertakings and freed from direct taxation.

! Mr. Lamer added that numerous petitions to the Government to install gas in State houses had been disregarded and tenants' wishes ignored as to which fuel they should buy. With a little encouragement, the company's mains and services could have been further extended, and this would have assisted power boards to avoid the unenviable risk they were now running of being obliged to ration electricity.

ourselves. Mr. Christie called on all the youth movements to take a step forward In godly union alone lay the hope of the world.