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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16722, 24 April 1920, Page 2

lor months post there has been frequent cause of complaint on the part of consumers on account of (he exceedingly poor quality of tho gas supplied by tiic New Plymouth Gas Company. Tho inconvenience and annoyance. have been endured with exemplary patience, though sometimes they have been really hard to hear. There teas, lion ever, a leeling that tho gas company might he the innocent, victim of circumstances, that the root of tho trouble was at the, coal mine.-, or in the shipping services. Tho position, however, has toconio so intolerable that consumers cannot b e expected to take just what the gas epmpany chooses to giro them and charge them in the name of gas without a vigorous protest. On ImuTuv it was almost impossible to Boil a kelUe ol "liter with the techie flicker of mi' liiiiiic .supplied. Tho gas comnanv has a charier granted it by Act of Parliament to supply gas within a certain area a,s a monopoly. Whoa that charter "as granted it contemplated an obligation on the part of tho Gas Company to supply the community with gas, not "itil tom air. This obligation is not being properly fulfilled and protests and complaints made to thy company hare .very little effect. AVe do not wish to suggest too harsh measures, but if an improvement is not brought about, the <oiiMimer.s and would-bo consumers mav hq forced into ashing Parliament to rVii ri V w j T riiarter it has granted. It the fault, is not the gas company’s, then the company could appeal to file Go\ eminent lor nssistanrc in ohiaininu; the supplies of coal which are necessary inr the production of gas. Tin's might lead to move regular supplies of coal being sent here. It is. however, “up to” the gas company To explain its failure to supply gas or accept the oonseouences P l . 011 appeal for the cifncolintion of its charter by Parliament. Tho reports of the position at tho Sun ftenio Conicrence give some cause lor despondency. Franco, which bore tho chief brunt of the German attack, sees tier chances of securing reparation for her Josses fading away and Germany under cover of ail sorts of excuses budding up a new army. The United States, which seemed likely to provide linn guarantees for the' safety of Franco, Juts gouo back to her former isolation and refuses to stir a linger to help in reconstructing Europe. Britain has her hands full* anti does not show any great anxiety for fresh military adventure, while the possibility of tho advent of a Labour Ministry, with pacifist tendencies on which Germany will play, to office in Britain causes a shiver of apprehension in the bosoms of all Frenchmen. Tho difficulty is that Germany must bo allowed to build up her industries again before she can make any of tho payments demanded by the treaty. British business men understand this and are anxious to assist in tho task, while the. sloppy-minded people who are full of sympathy with Germany’s sufferings have tho samo end in view for totally different reasons. France might bo persuaded to take this view also, but sho fears that she will have to meet at some not very distant day the attack of a reconstructed Germany which she is now asked to help in building up. There is no satisfactory solution of the difficulty, but all parties should be able to agree m preventing Germany maintaining a greater army than is permitted by the treaty. No one, however, anxious to see German commerce, restored, can urge that an army will assist her in. this process, while Franco fgars Gorman military ambitions far more than her commercial prosperity. If Britain and Italy will give thenhearty support to France in measures, if necessary forcibly measures, to keep down the growth of the German armv, France would probably consent to such lightening of tie treaty terms as would help to restore German trade and finance.