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51
Price of Gas.- In July, 1893, the Vestry recaived
a letter from the Vestry of St. Luke, inviting them
to appoint three delegates to a conference to
consider generally the increased charge for gas
made by the Gras Light and Coke Company, and
the anomalies existing in the matter of such charge
as compared with those of other Companies; and
farther to consider the desirability of endeavouring
to secure a modification of the existing statutory
rights of the Companies supplying gas to the
Metropolis, with the object of reducing the
statutory limit of dividend to be paid by the
Company, and of securing uniformity in the price
charged for gas consumed throughout the Metropolis
; and Mr. R. M. H. Griffith, Mr. Sans, and
Mr. Walton were appointed as such delegates.
The resolutions passed by the Conference were
the following:—
"That in the opinion of this Conference of Delegates from
Vestries and District Boards of Parishes and Districts situate
within the area of supply of the Gas Light and Coke Company,
the time has arrived when the existing anomalies in the charges
for gas supplied and use of meters by the several Companies
supplying gas in the Metropolis should be removed, and that all
gas supplied in the Metropolis to private consumers should be
supplied at a uniform charge per 1000 feet, with the free use of
meters."
"This Conference is also of opinion it is desirable that a
Parliamentary enquiry should be instituted into the present
management and working of the various Gas Companies, their
existing statutory rights and the past results, financial and
general, of the statutory sliding scale of price and dividend, and
that the existing limit of statutory dividend should now be
modified in the direction of a reduction in the amount thereof."
"That the Delegates to this Conference wait upon the President
of the Board of Trade in support of the foregoing resolutions."
"That copies of the resolutions passed by the Conference be
transmitted to the several Vestries and District Boards which
have appointed Delegates, and that those bodies be requested to
support the proposals contained in such resolutions."