The Star. WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 1888. THE GAS QUESTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6293, 18 July 1888, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 1888. THE GAS QUESTION.

The £50,000 Loan. LIGHT AT LAST. The Lyttelton Times this morning SBya : — At last we have daylight on the gas question. After giving that question the most careful consideration, and after exhausting every available means for bringing the Gas Company to reason, the City Counoil has coma to the obvious conclusion. It hag determined, if possible, to take the gas supply of the city into its own hands. It aska the ratepayers to take the steps necessary for putting an end to the monopoly of one of the chief necessaries of modem life. The decision deserves the approval of every ratepayer. It deserves more: it deserves the cordial co-operation of every holder of the Municipal Franchise. For years the citizen! have complained of the price of gas, and of the exactions of the Gas Company. Not long ago this juafc discontent culminated in an attempt to establish a second Gas Company. The attempt would have been success* ful had the promises of support been adhered to. Bat a small concession, quite inadequate as it has proved, ■was sufficient to deprive the promoters of the benefit of those promises, and the project had perforce to come to an end. Last year the question was again raised by the appeal made to Parliament by the gas consumers of Wellington. But the result of that appeal, though in many ways successful, was . not encouraging. Much light was thrown .on the gas question, certainly. THE RADICAL CUES. While, however, the eyes of the consumers -were opened ;to .many things, and though it was esta-' Wished, that the method of petition to* th» Legislature was a more promising read to redress than. an. appeal to private enterprise, the tenth became evident that the best and most complete method is the radical method adopted in so many municipalities of the present day— the method of municipal ownership and management of the gas plant. The Christchurch case has pointed in that direction all through. Its Gas Company has acted from the outset the part of Lord Paramount, and acted it harshly. It has made great profits. It has increased its capital from its reserves and continued to pay a hand-, some profit. It has laid down mains for the future, paying for them out of its present profits. \lt has tempered its habitually high-handed methods with concessions . few, far between, and quite inadequate. It has persisted in its exactions major and minor. It has, in a word, behaved as if it intended deliberately to drive the citizens to take the gas supply into their own hands. DRIVEN TO DESPERATION. . A last fruitless effort to bring the Company to reason drove the Council into serious consideration of this course. The Council's Committee has made out a very strong case. After careful enquiry it has reported that, with an expenditure of .£50,000 on gas plant, the Council will be able to supply the consumers with gas at six shillings per thousand feet, at a profit — when the cost of the lighting of the city is taken into consideration at - thirty shillings per lamp less than the present price— of £2100 a year. This calculation is based on thraefourtbs of the present consumption, and the fact that support to that extent has .been promised to -the Council's representatives. We see no reason to doubt these estimates. The business capacity and honourable character of the men who are responsible for them are guarantees for their correctness. And they have the great advantage of not standing alone. EXPERIENCE ELSEWHERE. They are corroborated by the recorded actual experience of three neighbouring cities. Invercargill, with a population one-third that of Christchurch, supplies gas to its consumers at 7s 6d, and makes a profit on the charges incidental to J645.000. Nel. son supplying gas at less than the present Christchurch rates makes a profit of j£Bso a year ; and Bunedin, though saddled with an aggregate of .£5343 for the annual interest and sinking fund on the cost of its works (the cost of these items in the scheme proposed here is only £2485) can sho.7 a profit of £3000 to £4000 a year after supplying gas to the consumers at 7s 6d, and to the city lamps at £4 2s 6d. The triple corroboration of the Committee's figures is as complete as could be desired. The advantages which the Council has are obvious, for it possesses a staff, offices and engineer already. On a basis of three-fourths of the present consumption, at 6s the Council offers the ratepayers a certain profit of £1000 a year, and the eventual ownership of the works and reticulation. It offers them the extinction of the monopoly of a necessary of life, an advantage the necessity of which is everywhere being recognised, and the security of which is made everywhere the object of increasing efforts. The •ownership of gas works is now in fact one of the first principles of modern municipal life. Should the electric light develop, as it promises, its extensive use can be grafted on to i the nnmioipal system now proposed to the ratepayers. On the whole, the case for the loan of £50,000 for which the Council is asking the consent of the ratepayers is. overwhelming. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Tlie Council was nearly unanimous on itstconclusion. Not only was the minority small, but it was singularly wea?: in its protest. The opposition was 'based on two grounds. Mr Reese held that the opposition of a wealthy Company is dangerous to every eatej.-prise, and that such a danger oagfe not to be incurred by twothhr&t of the ratepayers in the interest of tha one-third who are gas comiujtaen. To the first, thwaiunwr

is obvious, that the promises of support place the Council out of the reach of 'opposition of the kind at which Mr Reese hints. If the promises are not considered sufficiently binding it is easy to make them so. To th« second objection, Councillor Gray made the apt reply that the gas shareholders are not one twentieth of the ratepayers. Moreover, if it is not right to do anything in the interests of the consumers, why should it be right to' buy the present gas works from the Company? But Municipal practice of the first Municipal principle has established that it is both right and profitable to regard the interests of the consumers. And the , principle is confirmed by the alterna- > tive proposal to buy their works from the present Company. That is, of course, oat of the question at the present price of the shares, as Councillor Gray pointed out in his reply ; and it is hardly likely, as experience of the Cras Company's habits proves to us, that the works would be parted with for less. THE QUID PRO QUO. The new works can, besides, be erected on a more comprehensive plan, and the cost of the material is very much less than it was when the present works were begun, and less than the cost of many subsequent additions. Account must also be taken of modern improvements. The ratepayers have, of course, a right ' to a quid pro quo, • In . return for their consent to the use of their credit the Council offers them a scheme which will give them a profit in reduction of their general rates. That reduction begins at J2IOOO a year, and, as the reduced price of gas is certain to increase the consumption, is sure to be larger as time goes on. With these remarks we can safely leave the ratepayers to vote on the proposal for a loan of .£50,000. Never has a better case been made out for a loan. Never was a loan with greater certainty of profit, direct and indirect — the direct profit of a reduction of rates, and the indirect profit by the greater spending power attendant on a reduction of the cost of an expensive necessary of life.