South Canterbury Times, MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2573, 20 June 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, MONDAY, JUNE 20, 1881.

A citizen of Timaru has complained to us of unfair treatment at the hands of the Gas Company. We felt it our duty to inform him that he was not singular in his complaint. However, he thought his case was peculiarly hard, and explained the facts. , It appears that he recently purchased a business, and after paying cash for the goodwill and stock-in-trade, endeavored to make himself right on the gas score. He took possession on the 23rd of the last month, and there was a current gas account; He requested one of the Company’s officers to examine the meter, so that the outgoing tenant might be billed for the actual amount of gas: he had used. The request was reas-onable enough, and in common fairness should have been aucuduil to. Bat LigL.handed are the ways of the Gas Company, and oblivious is that body of everything but substantial dividends. The meter was not looked, at until the end of the month, and then the new tenant received an accadnt of £5, which he was obliged to pay, otherwise his gas would have been “ cut off.” The original tenant; by that time had cleared out, and Ho. 2 had consequently no prospect of a refund.. His account really should have amounted to £l. It is not our object to censure the officer who refused to examine the meter. The regulations of the Company may have strictly prevented his doing bo. But the principle which underlies the charge is exceedingly bad. It is that of compelling one man to pay the debt of another. The main object of course is to protect the interest of the Gas Corporation. On no failbusiness grounds could the claim referred to be urged. It is simply a matter of stand and deliver. Now the principle being so obviously unfair one would naturally think that the Gas Company would undertake a trifling inconvenience to render it less harsh in operation. But no. The accounts are rendered at a certain date, and whatever may be the hardship inflicted, there shall be no. deviation from the rule. Gas Companies appear to be the only institutions which can shamefully ignore the interests and set at defiance the opinions of their customers. They are monopolies in the strictest sense of the term.

The fault in a great measure lies at the door of the Legislature. In granting the monopolies sufficient safeguards were not provided for the protection of the public. Gas Corporations are not in the same position as Municipal Councils, who are legally entitled to exact back rates of the present occupant or owner of premises. The Gas Companies have no legal status whatever in the matter. Besides, there is this fundamental difference between the two bodies. Municipal rates are devoted to the improvement of property, and those improvements are often of a permanent nature. It does not signify a rush to a tenant whether the previous occupant of a building used gas or kerosene. It is only fair to state that the Timarn Company only follows the practice generally adopted by other gas corporations. They are all tarred with the same brush, and, according to a decision recently given in England, they are all guilty of most illegal actions. We would be the last in the world to advise anyone to go to law. It is a costly expedient for redressing a wrong. However, a person in England had the boldness to go to law with a powerful gas monopoly, and the latter had to pay back the sum it extorted by threatening to cut off his gas because he at first refused to pay for the lighting of the previous occa-

pant. Still the sums illegally charged are seldom of sufficient amount to induce * one to have recourse to the Law Courts. We must trust to the electric . r light to relieve the longsuffering consumers of gas. Care, however, must be taken that one monopoly does not succeed another. As we said in a previous article, the question really lies with the public. If our . representatives in Parliament do'their duty, they will refuse to allow the people to be placed at the mercy of a monopoly in a matter of such great importance as public and private lighting.