RESPONSIBILITIES -OF GAS COMPANIES.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1315, 16 October 1872, Page 2

RESPONSIBILITIES -OF GAS COMPANIES.

: ; In speaking to the motion for the second reading of the Nelson Gas Bill, in the Legislative Council, the ; IJoi^Mir Waterhouse said :— " In all the legislation in this. Colony upon the subject [of gav> there had hitherto been an omission of an * important provision which existed in the English Gas Clauses Consolidation Act, . whereby, manufactured gas. must be, of ay certain purity. This was a most important, provision. . ;. .No one could be. acj-. quainted with the nature of the gas supplied to consumers in many of the cities of New; Zealand, without arriving at the conclu- ; sion that there was great need fofcinv-.C provement. This was, 'perhaps/ more ' especially the case in Wellington, and he v must confess that he would as soon r have a sewer running throughhis houße as a gaspipe'from the Wellington Gasworks, - ;He said this advisedly. He cpuld not speak from his own knowledge, although'perhaps some. hon.^ineHiber could 'do no,; but he had heard that Dr Hector had been at the trouble to bottle up a f quantity of this gas, and he found that after a short time the properties evolved were those of assafoetida. ;N/ow,this was a, very ■seribntf 1 Question indeed, and showed the neceaS sity of introducing some ' provision re» lating to the quality of the gas to be manufactured.u nder this Bill. . ; : ! , .7 At the present time they had not; very many Bills ; but they must expect' that, as ... the Colony increased in population, . hundreds— and he hoped even thousands i f- of these Bills might.be neceßsary. Jt was, therefore, .a' matter of importance that they should deal with these matters in the commencement as it was desirable jhat they should be dealt with in the long run, and they could only deal with th.env effectually by having a Bill of the charac-s ter of the English Gas jClauses Consolidation Act, that would provide that all gas companies to be established hereafter i should furnish gas of a certain purity, and.: subjecting them to such regulations m, [ c in the interest of the public, it had been found elsewhere ought to be established." Drßenwick, the move of the* Bill," pro^ mised to have such a clause introduced in committee. . .