GAS SUPPLIES.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 July 1926, Page 2

GAS SUPPLIES.

WELLINGTON, July 28. Reference to tbe Board of Trade Regulations for controlling tbe sale and supply of gas are contained in the annual report o lthe Department of Industries and Commerce. The Regulations, it says, provide safeguards in regard to the heating value, purity, pressure, price and measurement. The regulations are administered by the Department with a. Board of gas referees, consisting of Dr. J. S. MacLaurin (Dominion Analyst), and Messrs R. W. Holmes and A. Ford. Several officers have been appointed as gas examiners, under the Regulations, and since September last tbe gas supplied in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch has been regularly tested. and has been found to comply with the provisions regarding calorific value, purity and pressure. The average calorific value of each of these cities was well above tbe declared calorific value, which is 450, 475, 470 British thermal units per cubic foot, in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch-re-spectively. The official tests of the Dunedin gas supnlv will bo commenced as soon as tbe Government laboratory, which is being established in that'City is completed. Investigations have been made relative to prices and costs in the four chief centres, and price reductions have been found possible and made effective in Wellington and Christchurch. Provision has been made for the collection of a levy from companies sufficient to pay the costs of administration, which will not, however, amount to a large sum. The accurate measurement of gas passing through consumers’ meters is of course a matter of material importance and the Regulations now make provision for the testing and stamping by official inspectors of all meters, either new or repaired, going into use.