The Evening Star THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2052, 2 December 1869, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1869.

There is a time for all things, and f any plan or project is forced upon a community before they are prepared to sanction or able to support it, the result must be want of success. It is time for us now to point to the action of the City Council on the Gas question, for the report of the Gas Committee is before the public, and, judging from its tenor, it seems a settled purpose in the minds of the members, that the plans ■and specifications of Mr A. K. Smith are to be adopted, and new gas works constructed. The questions for the City to decide—and to decide promptly —are, first; Does Dunedin require Hew gas works 1 and, secondly : Have sufficient pains been taken to ascertain that Mr A. K, Smith’s plans are the best and cheapest 1 ? We are not about to defend the present contractors, nor to dispute that had the present gas works been better placed, and had they possessed all the advantages that could now be secured at a much cheaper rate, many of the causes of complaint that have arisen would have been avoided. Nor do we think it necessary to advert to those personal disagreements out of

■which the agitation about gas arose. We wish the public to view the matter in a purely economic light, and to require at the hands of their representatives in the City Council so full and fair an investigation of the subject, that whatever is done may not be the result of mere party feeling, but of sound business calculations. We must then lay it down as a maxim, that to have too much capital and labor employed for a given result, is a loss to the community. Already some twenty-four or twenty-five thousand pounds are invested in works to supply Dunedin with gas. The City Corporation propose to add to this large amount, to say the least of it, half as much more. Now, it must be borne in mind, that in order to enable them to light the public lamps of the city, with which alone they have to do, at a lower price than at present charged, they must manufacture a much larger quantity of gas than those lamps, if trebled in number, can consume ; and unless they do this, they cannot supply the City lamps at so low a price as is now charged. So far as public lighting is concerned, and that is all the City Council have directly to deal with, we have no hesitation in saying that the present lessees of the gas works would, if asked, concede the point, and undertake the public lighting at the minimum rate indicated in Mr A. K. Smith’s report, and contract to do so for a period that might be agreed upon. We do not think, however, that hero the duty of the Corporation ends, although it is a bad precedent to allow a public body to interfere with or compete in private enterprise. But manifestly, where for a specific purpose, a large amount of money has been invested, it behoves them to be especially cautious not to render it worthless or unprofitable unless upon the clearest possible evidence of public necessity. We hold, notwithstanding Mr A. K. Smith’s elaborate report, only one side of the question has been heard. It has been shown that under the most favorable circumstances, and with an increase of consumption, gas can be supplied at a given price to the City and to private consumers. But it has not been shown that the erection of new gas works will shut up the old. It has been shown that the present works do not give an adequate supply of gas, but the present lessee has not been asked if he can so add to their producing and distributing power as to be able to do at a small cost what is proposed to be done at a heavy outlay. Supposing the Corporation Gas Works constructed if they succeed it must be by this process; First, they must undersell the present Gas Company or their lessee, in order to obtain the preference. Now the fact of doing this implies manufacturing at a loss for an uncertain period of time, and this loss must be paid out of City rates. This elament has not been taken into consideration. The preference attained at an indefinite loss to the City, one of the ends gained is reducing some thirty thousand pounds’ worth of labor and material—or it would not be under the mark to say forty thousand—in works constructed and fittings connecting the mains with different buildings, to some few hundreds of pounds as old metal and useless buildings. This must be added to the cost to the coramuniny of obtaining cheap gas. On the other hand, should the present Gas Company find themselves in a position to fight the battle, as the City will not long endure working the City gas works at an annual loss of some thousands of pounds, which they must do to compete successfully, then the outlay by the Corporation will be thrown away ; for if the Gas Company succeed the City gas works will be shut. Our present position is not a balance of advantage against disadvantage. It is a balance of disadvantages in which by building new gas works loss is inevitable. To rush into new arrangements without first trying if efficient supply at reasonable rates can be secured from our present works, is to invite that unpopularity to the promoters that invariably follows hasty, ill-considered action. If the present gas works can be made to answer until population so increases as to justify the outlay, the proper course of action is to wait until new works are needed. As for Mr Smith’s plans, we hold that neither the members of the City Council nor their engineer are able to pronounce on their efficiency, and that their only safe course is in competition. The revelations in Melbourne and Newcastle, N.S.W., do not justify unlimited confidence in that gentleman’s ability.