THE COLONIST. Published Daily-Morning. Nelson, Wednesday, July 11, 1906. CITY COUNCIL AND GAS SUPPLY.

Colonist, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11976, 11 July 1906, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Daily-Morning. Nelson, Wednesday, July 11, 1906. CITY COUNCIL AND GAS SUPPLY.

' However well intentioned the Mayor's object may have been in calling the special meeting of the City Council, which was held on Monday night, aiid proposing that an order be cabled Home for gas mains, the majority of the Council took the only legitimate course that was open when they refused to sanction the proposal. By the Mayor's own admission the Council has used its powers to overdraw its banking account to the very utmost, and to have ordered the pipes, trusting to pay for them out of profits .yet tt> be earned, would have been a very bad and dangerous piece of business, 1 amounting to reckless finance, for any unforseen contingency would certainly have led to payment being ■ deferred;, whife there was no guarantee that credit could have been secured till profits from the gas works permitted of the liability being discharged. Had the proposal been carried, the probabilities are that authority for the proposed loan would have been refused because a considerable section of the ratepayers might have felt that their requirements were about to be supplied, and other parts of the city would then have been worse off than ever. The gas works are certainly capable of better returns than they are giving, and the Mayor showed this plainly when he stated that the mains supplying the Wainiea road district are incapable of carrying sufficient gas to satisfy the consumers. It is evident then, that larger mains m'^st be laid i'? business ; ! ft to be retained, let alone extended, and the only way to get the money for the work is by means of a loan. The interest and sinking fund for such loan shouid, and must be pro vided oufe of the proSts of tbe «ns works, and a definite Assurance that 3 tfrdt will be done should be given, 1 because it is necessary to provide a special rate bj> way of security, and the ratepayers should be satisfied that they will not have to pay more than they are paying at present. With such an assurance the lofen should be authorised, because the montej 7 it will provide must, when laid out as proposed, materially increase the earning power of the works.