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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 216, 12 September 1871, Page 2

A correspondent of one of the Mel- i bourne papers sends the following account of the steps taken to prevent a gas monopoly at G-eelong : — " In the town of Geeloog, now constituted a city, a company was formed to provide the inhabitants with gas. The Corporation gave its sanction to the breaking of the streets and thoroughfares, besides granting a site whereon to erect the gas works. It became also the best customer of the company, for it undertook the lighting up of the street3 in the town and suburbs, for which it was recouped by striking a lighting rate. There was not a business firm, nor scarcely a private house, to which gas was not laid on. The company prospered. Shares were only- obtainable at a high premium, and at the end of the j year the shareholders divided among themselves a good round dividend, and then raised the price of their gas 25 per cent. The announcement was no sooner made than the people met together and, almost unanimously, decided upon discontinuing the use of gas. The Corporation called for tenders for lighting the town with kerosine, and the company's shares in a few days fell considerably below par. The gas consumed scarcely paid working expenses, and there arose an agitation for an opposition company. Then the directory of the established company came to their reason, and announced a return to their former tariff. But the concession was not accepted. The Corporation refused to burn the company's gas unless a reduction of ten per eent. was made upon the original charge, and general consumers followed Buit. There was nothing for it but for the company to succumb. Consumers had their own way, and the company learned a lesson they did not soon forget. Indeed, some months subsequently the directors voluntarily made a still further reduction in the price of gas, which was more than compensated for by increased consumption, and the purchase of gas shares in the G-eelong G-as Company became one of the safest investments of the time."