LIGHT, MORE LIGHT

Observer, Volume 5, Issue 131, 17 March 1883, Page 419

LIGHT, MORE LIGHT

That tlie Auckland Q-as Company is making enormous profits out of its monopoly of the lighting of the city is a fact which no one who knows anything of the subject will be bold enough to deny. Like all powerful monopolies, it is selfish. "While everyone, from the highest church dignitary downwards, is intent on money-grubbing, it is not surprising that a corporate body, blessed with an undisturbed monopoly, makes the most of its opportunity, and it can scarcely be blamed for doing so. Such monopolies can only be broken down or reduced to reasonable limits by public pressure, but at present the public of Auckland are apathetic on the subject. Had the City Council been alive to its responsibilities and duties, it would long ago have brought down the price of gas, or undertaken the lighting of the city, as is done in many other places, where the price of gas is reduced to a minimum, while leaving a margin above interest, working expenses, etc., which goes to the Corporation funds. The progress of chemical science in these days has developed many modes of profitably utilising what was formerly the waste residuum of gasworks, and thus considerably reduced the outlay in material, while increasing the nett profit. In Blackburn, England, gas is now produced at 4Jd per 1000 feet, the residue being almost as valuable as the gas itself. In another town in the same county the prime cost of production has been reduced to 5d per 1000 feet. Of course^ we do not contend that it is possible, in the present condition of the Auckland labour market, and the cost of materials, to rival this extreme economy in production, but that there is ample room for a considerable reduction none but those who are directly interested in maintaining the existing high tariff will attempt to gainsay. The time is ripe for the public or the corporation to take some determined step in the direction of cheapening the price of gas in Auckland.