WELLINGTON GAS CO

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 33, 9 February 1939, Page 11

WELLINGTON GAS CO

A SATISFACTORY YEAR.

Moving the adoption of rhe directors’ report and the accounts for the year ended Decemebr 31, 1938, at the 69th. annual general meeting of shareholders of the Wellington Gas Company, Ltd., yesterday, Dr. C. Prendergast Knight, chairman of directors, said it was gratifying to report that the results for the year had been satisfactory, and the directors were pleased to recommend the payment of the usual dividend of 8 per cent, on the ordinary shares, and 5 per cent, on the preference shares, the balance in profit and loss was £693, and the carry forward, with this addition, would be £19,547.

Apart from the revenue derived from the sale of .gas, shareholders should remember that a substastial portion of the company’s income was received from the sale of coke and tar, and also from rents, investments and manufactures. The amount owing by the company included provision for income tax for the year ended December 31. The policy of making adequate provision for depreciation of plant, machinery and buildings had been continued, the amount written off for the past year being £17,137. The plant had been maintained in firstincreased Demand for Gas. To provide for the increased demand for gas, further plant had been installed, including duplicate units of exhausting apparatus, each of a capacity of 166,000 cubic feet an hour. During the year the company had laid two miles of mains, and this had in- : creased the reticulation to 274 miles. The capital expenditure for the year amounted to £21,063.

The superannuation scheme established in 1926 had now 228 members with a total life cover of £177,000. The cost to the company since its inception had been £31,735. The total claims paid numbered 38, and amounted to £19,277. The sick benefit society had 212 members. The cost to the company for the year was £291, and the employees contributed a like amount. The payments for sickness amounted to £714. The funds of the society now amounted to £1209.

The company had further developed its policy of making available the latest designs of gas appliances for domestic and commercial cooking, heating, and water-heating services. The convenience of modern gas appliances was appreciated by consumers and had helped materially to maintain the increase in the gas consumption. This was often called the electric age, yet more gas than ever was being used. That, at any rate was the company's experience. The gas consumption for the past year showed an increase of 110 million cubic feet, compared with the year 1933. During the past five years they had added 5420 new consumers and installed 20.803 gas appliances. The wages paid for the past year amounted to £81,242, and the coal carbonised totalled 40,100 tons. The report and balance-sheet were adopted. Messrs. G. F. Pearce and A. L. Warburton were re-elected directors, and Messrs. H. A. Gold and E. R. Dymock were reappointed auditors.