10 CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF SMALL GASWORKS. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE LEGAL POSITION OF THE SMALL GAS COMPANY. 



IN common with all other traders, the small gas company 

 gets the ordinary protection afforded by the general law, 

 but as far as special legislation is concerned, the position is 

 anything but satisfactory. It is practically outlawed in 

 respect to this, unless legal protection is indirectly paid for 

 by means of the fees and expenses necessary to secure a 

 Provisional Order, which is the cheapest way of obtaining 

 that very indefinite advantage known as parliamentry pro- 

 tection, or as a monopoly, but forms a very serious tax 

 upon the resources of a small concern. We sometimes 

 boast that in England there is not one law for the rich 

 and another for the poor. However that may be in a 

 general sense, it cannot be denied that there is one law /"or 

 the gas company that can afford to pay for it and another 

 for the one that cannot. So far as the small company is 

 concerned, the advantage conferred by a Provisional Order 

 at the present time (whatever it may have been when the 

 arrangement was inaugurated) is of such a doubtful 

 character that the position should be fully considered before 

 loading the capital with legal expenses, especially if opposi- 

 tion is to be expected. When such expenses amount 

 to only a trifling percentage as compared with the paid up 

 capital, the matter is not of so much consequence, but when 

 they amount to 10 per cent, or so, they constitute a heavy 



