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182
considerably below the permitted amount; the maximum not
having been attained on any occasion.

Ammonia, a valuable residual product of gas manufacture,
was present in the gas in slight quantities, more or less frequently
throughout the year; but never in anything like the quantity permitted
by the Acts of Parliament—viz., four grains in 100 feet of
gas.
The Chief Gas Examiner being independent of the Company,
it is satisfactory to note that his reports on the daily testing of
the gas are favourable.
No complaint was received by me during the year from any
private consumer in respect of the illuminating power of the gas,
and I understand that Mr. Philip Monson, your Vestry's Superintendent
of Street Lighting, is satisfied with the quality of the
gas as supplied to the public lamps. The burners now in use
consume gas at the rate of 4'5 cubic feet per hour; whereas the
burners formerly in use, originally provided when Cannel gas was
employed, consumed only 3 feet per hour. Notwithstanding the
increased consumption of gas (50 per cent.), and the consequent
improvement in the lighting of the public thoroughfares, the cost,
owing to reduction in price, is less than under the old system of
a fixed annual payment per lamp. Great complaints, however, are
made by private consumers, who allege that, although the nominal
price of gas may go down (the shareholders' profits go up pari
passu) the actual annual payment for gas is always increasing;
the reason probably being that no means are adopted for controlling