ACTUAL COSTS AND CAPACITY OF GASWORKS 251 



The sale of gas for the first complete twelve months, to 

 3oth June 1910, was over 11,000,000 cubic feet. This 

 included that consumed by about fifty public lamps. It 

 takes a year or two to entirely wean a community from 

 the old-fashioned oil lamp, even when gas has been in- 

 stalled. In this case, all the buildings for which the works 

 were put down were erected, or nearly so, and the 

 tenants used oil for artificial lighting. With the exception 

 of less than half a dozen, all adopted gas, though it is 

 too much to expect them to discard their oil lamps entirely 

 and unanimously, at the first flash of gas lighting. The 

 estimate of 10,000 per consumer, reckoned upon in dis- 

 cussing works No. i, may, with confidence, be looked for 

 after, say, the second complete year of the undertaking's 

 existence. 



When another 950 consumers have been addsd to this 

 undertaking on the existing line of mains, assuming they 

 will cost an average of ^4, 53. each, the capital will be 

 increased by ,4,037, and if the consumption has then 

 reached 10,000 per consumer, the capital, at 19,790, will 

 work out, on a sale of 22,000,000 cubic feet, to about 

 1 8s. per thousand cubic feet, a figure which approximates 

 very closely to that of works No. i forecast. It has 

 been assumed that only future consumers will have free 

 fittings, to make the figures comparable with No. i 

 works. As a matter of fact, when the abnormal building 

 to provide for the urgent needs of the new community 

 was finished, the practice of free fitting was discon- 

 tinued, and landlords are now required to pay for 

 installations. In addition to this, provision will be made 

 for depreciating the installations already in use, so that 

 by the time the output is 22,000,000 cubic feet, tht 

 capital will be much more favourable than the comparison 

 given. 



Works No. 3. 



Without going into details, the costs of these works may 

 be given. They are situated in the neighbourhood of 

 works No. i and 2. The area of the land is about i acre. 



