Evenyoxe complains of the quality of the yas supplied to the British Settlement. 'The light given by it is so feeble that many persons say that they are unable, after buying all sorts of new burners and lamps, to read books in ordinary type by it, he lamps in the streets are only' sulicient to make their own feebleness ible; if the electric lamps were put out the streets would scarcely be better lighted than in the old days when Chinese oil was the illuminant, The gas supplied on the French side is infinitely better and is an honest article, If the experiment of try Kerosene oil lamps in our stree we should not be much surprised if were found as efficient as the p caricature of yas, Mhe illuminating is feeble, the colour an uncle: yellow. In the very earliest gas-making no Directors would have supplied such gas to the public, If any Board had done so. their company would soon have passed into the list of nou-dividend paying concerns. The Shanghai Gas Company is however a very prosperous concern, paying large divi-dands, accumulating property; it has increased its capital by dividing reserved profits into shares, and no doubt the Directors consider that so far as the Bri and American Settlements go, they have an unassailable mo-nopely. A few years ayo, this belief in their position led the Directors into rather an indiscreet display of the power which they presumed they had over the community. The votes of the ratepayers, and certain very distinct statements to the effect that the Gas Company were mistaken in supposing that they could dio as they pleased, led the Directors to take a more sensible view of their relations with the residents. The introduction of the electric light was a warning which the Directors at that time had the common-sense to take to heart. They ceased to lecture the Municipal Council. They reduced their prices and supplied better gas. The alarm which the Gas Company then suffered has doubtless subsided, and the present board of Directors seem to be determined not to heed the complaints of the public, but to go on making gas from the cheapest, and therefore, the Worst coal which will serve their purpose. Probably they mean to get their trial into their own hands, and at the same time calculate that the community will continue to take their gas and content itself with grumbling. The latter however is rather a dangerous reed to lean upon as it is quite probable that even this long-suffering community will lose patience, and deal with the Gas Company in rather a summary way. The present loose contract may not be renewed next year by the Municipality, or another in which the illuminating power of the lamps shall be specified may be substituted in its place. Without dealing unfairly with the Company such terms might be imposed on it as would seriously diminish its profits, while the law would undoubtedly prevent the Directors, such of them at all events as are British subjects, from doing anything which would endanger the safety of the Settlements.
When we wrote last on the quality of the gas, we were under the impression that the Municipal Council had stipulated in the contract that the gas used in the street lamps should be of a certain illuminating power. We have since ascertained that there is no formal contract between the Company and the Municipality. Letters passed between the two bodies, and that is all. These letters do not mention any quality of gas, the only approach to anything of the kind in them being Mr. Purdon's statement in his letter of 28th December 1883, that the Directors were fully alive to the fact that the community require the streets to be well. lighted—the italics are his. The present Directors do not appear to be alive to this requirement of the public or as far as we can see, to care for anything but increasing their profits. We had occasionally to find fault with the Gas Company during Mr. Purdon's Chairmanship, but however strongly he may have questioned the complaints which we made in the public interest, we cannot recall a case in which he did not do something in order to put matters right. The present Chairman, whoever he may_ be, evidently does not care for complaints, which we understand were made by consumers in scores of instances, or for public remonstrances. He probably relies on the results in the shape of 2 good dividend procuring condonement of his policy from his shareholders. It is quite probable that he will get this for we understand that the bulk of the shares in. the Company have passed into the hands of absentees, who, of course, only care to get as much as possible out of the public. But between now and the next renewal of the ement for lighting the streets the public may fake "action to obtain their rights from the Directors. And in the meantime private consumers will no doubt supply the place of gas in their dwelling houses by some other illuminant. These remedies will not: act at once; therefore if the Municipal Council have any means of dealing with the company in such a way as will lead to the improvement of the gas, we hope they will use them. The Municipal Engineer should be entitled to examine into the quality of the gas supplied, he should be required to do so, and to report upon it, and these reports should be regularly made to the Council, and published with the weekly minutes.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.