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100
Your Committee resolved:—That the Vestry oppose
such Bill.
On the 22nd February, 1893, the Vestry approved
the action of the Committee and instructed the Solicitor to
take the necessary steps to do so. The Solicitor employed
Counsel to act on behalf of the Vestry in opposing the Bill
in the II ouse of Lords. The Bill was heard in Committee
in the II ouse of Lords on Wednesday and Thursday,
26th and 27th April, when the Company gave way to
a compromise, and the opposition of the Bill was withdrawn.
The terms of the compromise are as follows:—
That the illuminating power of the gas should be 15
candle power. The sliding scale is to be adopted instead
of a standard price; there is to be a neutral zone between
2s. 10d. and 3s. 2d., that is, the Company may, if necessary,
alter and vary the price of 1,000 feet between 2s. 10d. and
3s. 2d., but while so doing must not increase its dividend.
In this way the Company has a margin sufficient to protect
it in case of any rise in cost of production, but without any
power in so raising the price of increasing its dividend ;
when the price, however, is above 3s. 2d., and below
2s. 10d., the sliding scale is to operate. As to purity, the
Company is not to have the right, as sought for, to lower
the purity to 30 grains of sulphur per 100 cubic feet of gas
but it must continue at 20 grains; but there is to be a
clause inserted in the Bill exempting the Company from
penalties if any excess beyond the 20 grains can be shown
by the Company to arise from unavoidable accident. The
test to be based on a seven days' test, and not one day only.
The Company is to have the power to raise the new capital,
if required, by preference shares. A testing station is to
be erected at the Beckenham Local Board Offices, to which