SIR D. MILNE-WATSON ON GAS PRICES
A number of leading gas companies have this year advanced the price of gas, although their financial results for 1938 in many instances make a better showing than those of 1937. The reply which Sir David Milne-Watson, Governor of the Gas Light and Coke Company, had to offer on that point at last week's meeting was illuminating, and most shareholders will think, conclusive. The new gas prices are caused not by the coal prices of 1938, but by those of 1939. During the year the company was, he said, still receiving coal priced on contracts made in 1935, plus the voluntary addition of Is. per ton agreed to in January, 1936, to facilitate the raising of miners' wages. In its 1939 Budget the company will have to take the full strain of the new contracts made since the passing of the recent Coal Acts. In Sir David's view, the company has delayed until the last possible moment the raising of the price of gas.
He pointed out that during the recent cold spells the con- sumers were receiving gas at the old price, although the com- pany was paying higher prices for coal. He added that all previous records for gas-output had been broken in the cold pre-Christmas week. On Wednesday, December 2ISt last, they reached the remarkable peak of 265,000,000 cubic feet, or 17,000,000 cubic feet more than the company's previous record output, and by far the largest amount of gas ever supplied in a single day by any undertaking in the world.
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