1 8 CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF SMALL GASWORKS. 



lighting bill do not leave any margin for service pipe, or 

 other incidental expenditure, and every service pipe, apart 

 from the first cost, carries a fixed charge per annum for 

 maintenance and an aliquot contribution to the item of 

 unaccounted-for gas, and these charges are fixed and 

 constant, irrespective of consumption. The presumption is 

 that wherever a lamp is required, there will also be private 

 business, and that only in exceptional cases will the full 

 length of 50 yards of service be called for. Even in large 

 towns, the long service is more frequent than would at first 

 sight be supposed, and in smaller places it becomes an 

 important proportion of the whole. Under the most favour- 

 able conditions, the public lighting does not add much 

 to the profits, and in small districts it is usually attended 

 with a loss. And this loss does not fall so much on the 

 shareholders as on the consumers. The 4 or 5 per cent, 

 dividend would be paid in any case, and any loss from 

 public lighting or otherwise would take the form of a tax on 

 the price of gas. It cannot be too clearly pointed out to 

 public authorities, and all interested parties, that any losses 

 or extra expenses must eventually be met by the consumers, 

 and perhaps stand as a permanent tax on the selling price. 

 The gas testing clauses are now an absurdity in any case, 

 seeing that flat-flame burners are practically out of use, and 

 that the suppliers may safely be trusted not to follow such 

 a suicidal policy as the supply of an article deficient in 

 illuminating power or impure. If they did so, many 

 customers would simply cease to use it. But to call upon 

 a small concern to fit up a photometer and photometer 

 room, at an expense of ^80 to ^"100, when the apparatus 

 will not be used and is not required, is simply making an 

 unnecessary charge on the consumers. It is only in large 

 and important districts that an official examiner can by any 



