* * * SOUTH METROPOLITAN GAS.
The annual report of the South Metropolitan Gas Company shows that the net revenue for last year from the company's own undertaking was £570,610 as compared with. £561,800 in the previous year. A dividend was also received from the South Suburban Gas Company of £37,917 against £32,500. An increase in interest charges, however, partly offset the advance in income, but the dividend is maintained at 61 per cent. with £30,000 added to the Special Purposes Fund. In their Report the Directors criticize the anticipated effect of the Coal Mines Bill. " It is untrue," they say, to suggest that the Company has paid less than a commercial or market price for its coal ; upon occasions the cost has been unduly high. The prospects of having to purchase coal in a restricted instead of an open market, and of the compulsory amalga- mation of collieries, whether well-managed or ill-managed, profitable or unprofitable, are viewed with apprehension. ..
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