The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, SEPT. 15, 1876. THE GAS QUESTION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 126, 15 September 1876, Page 2

The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, SEPT. 15, 1876. THE GAS QUESTION.

Oamakc, like other towns, suffers occasionally from what we mr.y terra Municipal enthusiasm. By this we mean that it work* itself Hp to a pitch of intense excitement over some matters* affecting the interests of the town, and at other times it totally ignores matters of greater moment. It acts in tits ami starts, ami with an impulsive haste which, at times, is to be deprecated. Oamaru had scarcely recovered from the shock it received over the County Boundaries business before another etumr vttibri; was to startle it, and this time the point at issue was the Tramways Bill. Letters appeared in the papers, cotnmefttijnx v<ety warmly on the supposed monopolies certain persons were endeavoring to obtain. Counter-petitions were spoken of, the rights of the citizens must be- guarded, public recreation reserves *hon!d be held sacred to the people, and altogether a certain few endeavored to r»;.»fce a mountain out of a molehill regarding the private Tramways Bill. A long time before, and some time after, the Tramways agitation, the Water .Scheme was the chief topic of admiration among enthusiastic ratepayers. The Ensfuiecr s salary, the cost of the scheme, and thenndeatrabttity of such a gigantic undertaking .fev such a small demand, were subjects on whteh everybody had something to s«y. Ti«o9e who did not say a great deal thought a lot, white others assisted to spoil several vohimos of good white paj>er. Of course, .liter water came the next municipal luxury, viz., Gas. Residents in Oamaru bio&ed upon the introduction of gn& as a grand thing for the town. It was to cause a perfect revolution in domestic life, and be a great saving to heads of families. Kerosene was to be a thing of the past, the lamps which had done duty for so many years were to be cast aside for ever, and Oamaru was soon to forget that it ever knew of such a thing as kerosene. The opening night came, the hydrogen was allowed to find its way along the labyrinth of pipes hud through the town, the gas was lighted, and the iflominatiDg* power

universally pronounced as first-class. Then gas fitters were in great demand, ana a general rash ensued as to who should have the gas laid on first. "When the primary excitement toned down, the consumers began to solace themselves with the fact that after all there was nothing like gas. It was so much cleaner, a better light, and not at all dearer than kerosene. The dream of joy lasted a month, till the meter man came round, and then the head of the house, for the first time in learnt the meaning of thousands and tens of thousands of cubic feet of gas. Before this he had never troubled to learn the mysterious working of a gas meter; he was perfectly satisfied with the statement made by the collector that, as the gas passed through, it turned the hands round; lie had only to pay for what the said little hands registered. Ho far, this was highly satisfactory, but when the clocklike instrument registered four and five thousand cubic feet a week, the consumer takes a very warm interest in the working of the gas meter, and begins to have doubts whether, like Salem Scuddek's camera, it is " an apparatus that can't lie." The head of the house finds that, at 225. 6d. per 1,000 feet, gas is costing him three times as much as kerosene, so he actually reverts to the old illuminator, and curses the day when he ever had the gas laid on. These few introductory remarks bring tut now to the subject at issue—the price of gas. At last night's meeting of the Municipal Council, the Gas Committee's report was read and adopted, and we have no doubt it will be perused with great interest, especially by consumers. Comparisons, it is said, arc sometimes odious, but on this occasion we think they arc desirable. We have at some trouble obtained from Jnvcrcargill the official returns in connection with their Gas Works, which we will now place before our readers. The supervision and labor at t3ic Invercargill works for four months is put down at £203 165., and repairs and maintenance at £OO. In Oamaru the salaries for four months are calculated at £205 17s. Sd., so thai, as far us wages are concerned, we are actually paying £O3 less for the same period than our Southern friends. Now, for maintenance ours is more expensive, as the figures in the report show a sum of £132 6s. Bd. against £OO for InvercargilL j The next item is lime. With us this im- | portnni clement in the manufacture of "as i-s estimated io cost for four months j £23 is. } while in Invcrcargill it is com- ! pitted at 9s. per bag. or £2B 16*. On the : revenue side of the account we find that Invcrcargill estimates a consumption of 822,000 ft. for four months, which, at 15s. per l,oooft. f means £516 10s., while our ! consumption is returned at 000,000 ft. In ' the matter of profit Invcrcargill shows a ! much better balance-sheet than we can. j With coal at 455. per ton and gas at 15s. I per 1,000 ft., it has a balance in its favor j over expenditure for four months of £406 j lis., while Oamaru only estimates her proI fit at £134 3s. Id. We have placed these I facts and figures before our readers, and \ will leave them to draw»their own conclusions from the statements we have given.