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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5012, 17 April 1877, Page 2

We hope we have heard the last of the Empire Gas Company, and that any further attempt to float a company in irritating purposeless opposition to the Wellington Gas Company will be unsuccessful. At the time the project was mooted it met with a great deal of sympathy from all classes, because there was then a strong feeling abroad that the Wellington Company was using its monopoly unfairly by overcharging. However, the price of gas has now 'been reduced, and the new directorate took office with the distinct pledge of making a further reduction so soon as the consumption could be increased—a promise there is every reason to believe will be carried out in good faith. Undar these circumstances, the Empire Company will not be able to command that moral support which might have made it a dangerous rival to the old company, and it is fully certain that the promoters will find few capitalists prepared to enter into the venture as a commercial speculation. Arguments have been used to the effect that if the Empire Company be wound up, the result will be immediate increase in the price of gas, but such suggestions seem very absurd, for the directors are men of business, and know that such a course of procedure would not be tolerated. There is much more ground for fearing the effect of a weak and easily crushed opposition, and as the Empire Company can neither offer to the consumer cheaper gas than the Wellington already does and will supply him with, nor give the investor a prospect of a reasonable return for his money, the sooner it is wound up the better.