“There was some discussion as to the propriety of making the
requirements of this clause compulsory instead of merely permissive.
After the fullest consideration however, it was thought essential,
with the view of avoiding discussions in vestries, and especially
with the view of counteracting the underhand and secret influence
which the gas companies exert in many vestries and district boards,
to make the clause compulsory. There are many instances on record,
where powers are given to local authorities, and yet these powers,
although highly important to the public interests, have never
hitherto been exercised. Hence an additional reason for positively
requiring them to provide apparatus, &c., for testing the gas, and to
appoint and pay an inspector for the purpose. It is true that no
time is fixed within which the apparatus is to be provided and the
inspector appointed, but I apprehend it will be competent for any
ratepayer to compel, by mandamus, the performance of this duty by any
vestry or district board, within a reasonable time.
“The second section of the clause imposes an obligation on the gas
companies—namely, that each of them shall within six months erect at
the prescribed distance from their works, an experimental meter and
other apparatus for testing the illuminating power of the gas.
“Now these two obligations, the one on the local authorities of the
metropolis, and the other on the gas companies, must not be
confounded, because they are perfectly distinct, and the one is not
to be a substitute for the other. In the first place each local
authority in the metropolis—_i.e._, each vestry and district board,
about thirty-eight in number, constituted under the Metropolis Local
Management Act, is to erect its own apparatus, and appoint its own
inspector; and from future clauses it appears that the act
contemplates a continuous and regular succession of testing by this
inspector, both for purity and illuminating power. The evidence of
this inspector however as to any defects in the gas, will not be
conclusive until his report has been confirmed by testing the gas at
the prescribed distance of 1000 yards from the works. Hence the
necessity for the obligation on the company. The next clause will
better explain the mode of proceeding by the inspector, whenever he
finds the gas to be below the prescribed standard of illuminating
power. With reference to purity there is nothing about testing for
this at the distance of 1000 yards, and therefore the test for this
may be made wherever the inspector pleases.
“With respect to the number of separate places for testing the gas,
inasmuch as there are thirteen companies included within the act, and
each must provide a testing house 1000 yards distant from their
works, there must evidently be not less than thirteen of these. {9}
But if each local authority also erects a separate one at some
central part of its district, thirty-eight of these will be
necessary. A power is afterwards given for two or more local
authorities to combine, and then the number will probably be somewhat
diminished.
“All this necessity for a duplicate set of testing establishments is
rendered essential by the absurd requirement of the act as to testing
the gas at 1000 yards distance from the works. Now as the erection
of this apparatus by the companies and the establishment of a
permanent testing place away from their works will be very expensive
to the companies, it is just possible they may be very glad to be
relieved from this expense, and may consent to the testing at the
establishment of the local authority being sufficient evidence of the
illuminating power as well as the purity of the gas. This is the
more probable as it must be perfectly well known to the companies—at
least to their engineers—that so far as the company is concerned the
gas may just as well be tested in the centre of any district
supplied, as at the limited distance of 1000 yards from the works.”
Under the provisions of the fiftieth section of this act, the duty is
imposed upon the Metropolitan Board of Works of raising the costs and
charges incident to its passing; and that board have accordingly levied
under their precepts upon the several vestries and district boards, the
necessary amounts for meeting the claims received.
The accounts sent in by the various parties were submitted to the proper
officer of the House of Commons for taxation with the following result:—
Accounts sent in. Amount Certified by Costs Allowed. Board to Pay.
Taxing Officer.
£ _s._ _d._ £ _s._ _d._ £ _s._ _d._ £ _s._ _d._
Mr. Dangerfield 89 19 6 62 6 0 3 11 8 65 17 8
Mr. Wyatt 3666 0 4 3033 18 10 None. 3033 18 10
Mr. Beal . . . £2685 13 6 1272 13 6 676 11 7 None. 676 11 7
Less paid by Mr. Wyatt .
. . 1413 0 0
5022 13 4
House Fees on Taxation to be paid by Dyson & Co., (as Parliamentary Agents) 42 0 0
3818 8 1
The proportion of the above with which this parish is debited by the
precept of 1861 is £106 16s. 5d., but that proportion is based upon the
amount of the accounts as sent in; as reduced by taxation it will only be
£81 12s. 8d. But as the vestry has already contributed two hundred
pounds to Mr. Beal in answer to his various appeals, and expended upwards
of twenty pounds in making experiments as suggested by him, they will
have a large sum to receive back
In November, 1860, a proposal was made by the vestry of St. James’,
Westminster, to recognize the services of Messrs. Beal and Hughes
throughout the enquiry into the supply of gas to the metropolis, and the
passing of the recent measure by raising some fitting testimonial, and a
committee of that vestry having been appointed to carry it out, Messrs.
Hall and Perry were deputed to confer with them as to the best mode of
doing so.
The Bill to amend the Metropolis Gas Act, {11} introduced by the
government into parliament for transferring to the metropolitan board of
works, so far as regards the metropolis, the powers conferred by the acts
for regulating measures used in the sale of gas (22 & 23 Vic., cap. 66,
and 23 & 24 Vic., cap. 146) upon the justices of the peace, of appointing
inspectors of meters, having received the royal assent (24 & 25 Vict.,
cap. 79), it will be the duty of that board to take the necessary steps
for carrying it into execution. To aid in accomplishing this transfer,
the vestry on the tenth July, 1860, expressed their opinion that the
appointment of inspectors of meters in the metropolis would be best
placed in the hands of the metropolitan board of works, and petitioned
parliament and memorialised the justices of the peace upon the subject.
See Appendix No. 10 (page 56).
The number of public lamps in the parish on the 25th March, 1861, was as
follows—
Lighted by the London Gas Company 696
,, Western ditto at Kensal Town 30
726