(Pall Mall Gazette.)

Otago Witness, Issue 905, 3 April 1869, Page 19

(Pall Mall Gazette.)

In 1855 the Prefect of the Seine sanctioned the establishment of five gas companies in Paris, but before a year passed they were united in one, under the title of the Parisian Company for Lighting and Heating by Gas," with a concession for 50 years from that date. The company has 10 gasworks round Paris, and 50 gasometers, which are capable of storing more than twelve millions of cubic feet; of gas. The daily wages of the firemen employed have risen from .'if 50c in 1856 to 5f (4s), and an additional sum of 12s is given each month to such as have not kept " St. Monday." The shares of the company, which issued at i 20, have been generally quoted of late at L 64. The gas of this company now costs 30 centimes the cubic metre — as Dearly aa possible 7s Id per 1000 cubic feet — to private consumers. It is sold at half that price to the city and its establishments. The Pans standard does not show the illuminating power of the gas in a manner at once appreciable by our modes of gauging, The standard exacts that .0353 cubic feet of gas shall give a light equal to that of a carcel lamp burning lfoz of oil in the hour. It is calculated by M. Servier, an engineer of the company, that under the conditions of price and illuminating power stated, a thousand feet of the gas is equal to 14s 8d worth of oil and L24s 4d worth of candleß. The gas consumption of Paris ia largely on the increasa. In 1555 it was 1,439, 000,000 cubic feet ; in 1865 it was upwards of 4 094,000 000 being 3n increase m 10 years of more than 190 percent. The consumption of 1865 waa about 2223 feet per head of the population. In London in the same year the consumption of gas was 2824 feet per head.

The Russian Government has decided upon assisting the starving Finns by sending them out bodily to colonise the Arnoor regions. An old German vessel has been bought for this purpose at the price of 3D, 000 roubles, and the emigrants will be earned by instalments from Bremen. Every man is to receive, on hia arrival, 200 acres of ground, free of taxes for 24 years, together with the necessary implements, cattle, &c. This stock, .aa well as the expenses of the journey, is to be repaid in eight years' time, by instalments, to commeuce after the fourth year. Ihe four and twenty yeaTS over, the colonist will be called upon to pay a tax for his land, at tho moderate rate of 24 roublts annually. It is aaid that the Fians are very grateful, audthat both they aud Russia are likely to pro lit greatly by this colonisation.