GAS AND MUNICIPAL COMPETITION.
It is scarcely surprising that the leading Gas undertakings which have served the community well over a very long period
(Continued on page 252.)
Financial Notes
(Continued from page 251.) should be disposed to resent very strongly the peculiar nature of the competition which they are now meeting. Reference was made to this matter recently at the Meeting of the South. Metropolitan Gas Company, and at the Meeting of the Gas Light and Coke Company the Governor, Sir David Milne Watson, made a protest with regard to the favourable treat: ment accorded in Government and other official quarters to electricity and to the detriment of the older industry. He gave very definite evidence of instances where municipal bodies had refused permission for the supply of gas on Housing Estates. Great as are the advantages of electricity, it is common knowledge that there are few householders who would not desire to have the optional use of gas both on grounds of cheapness and in times of emergency. Sir David also referred to delay on the part of Government Departments.
to remove by way of new legislation certain statutory fetters under which the Gas industry is now bound. The Gas Com- panies, he said, were working under provisions created when the industry was a monopoly. Electricity and Oil were now formidable rivals, and the Gas Companies asked for the like freedom accorded to their rivals.
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