"nothing in this or the special Act contained shall prevent the undertakers from being liable to an indictment for nuisance, or to any other legal proceeding to which they may be liable, in consequence of making or supplying gas."

The scope of the prohibition against nuisance is widened by section 9 of the Gasworks Clauses Act, 1871, which says:

"

Nothing in this or the special Act shall exonerate the undertakers from any indictment, action, or other proceeding for nuisance, in the event of any nuisance being caused by them."

The Gasworks Clauses Act, 1871, provides also a valuable protection for owners and occupiers of property against the risk of having a gasworks dumped down in an unsuitable position among them, for section 5 says that

"the undertakers shall not manufacture gas or any residual products, except upon lands described in the special Act, and they shall not store gas except upon those lands, without the previous consent in writing of the owner, lessee, and occupier of every dwelling-house situate within 300 yards of the limits of the site where such gas is intended to be stored."

As a result of this provision you will always find in the special Act authorising a gas undertaking, a section which empowers the undertakers to maintain gasworks on specified lands described in a Schedule to the Act. The section serves a double purpose, for it not only gives the undertakers a charter to use the particular site for a purpose which is generally unwelcome to the owners and occupiers of neighbouring property, but also defines and restricts the character of the business which the undertakers are

entitled to carry on. The scope of the power varies a good deal in the case of different undertakings and the common form of section has changed at different periods. The form commonly adopted at the present time is set out in what is called "the Model Bill," a set of model clauses for Private Bills, issued under the authority of the House of Lords.

It reads as follows:

"(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the company may, upon the lands described in the schedule to this Act, erect, maintain, alter, improve, and renew gasworks, with all necessary machinery and apparatus, and do all such acts as may be proper for making and storing gas, and for supplying gas within the limits of this Act, and may also upon the said lands work up and convert the residual products arising directly or indirectly from the manufacture of gas by them.

(2) The company may also

"(a) purchase the residual products arising from the manufacture of gas by other gas undertakers, and therewith manufacture other products of the same kind as the company are manufacturing from their own residual products. Provided that the quantity of any residual product so purchased by the company in any year shall not exceed one-third of the quantity of the like residual product which shall in that year arise directly or indirectly from the manufacture of gas by them; and

"(b) purchase from other gas undertakers and elsewhere and use the materials required to work up and convert the residual products so arising from their own manufacture of gas or purchased as aforesaid;

"But the company shall not manufacture chemicals exclusively from raw materials purchased from sources other than gas undertakings, or in the manufacture of which the use of residual products produced by the company or purchased from other gas undertakings is merely subsidiary."

In cases where, as ordinarily happens, the undertakers obtain a general power to acquire additional lands, words are always inserted expressly excluding the use of such lands for purposes for which specific authority is necessary. The words used in the clause in the Model Bill as to acquisition of additional lands are:

"but the company shall not create or permit a nuisance on any such lands and no lands shall be used by the company for the purpose of manufacturing gas or residual products except the lands described in the Schedule to this Act."

Breaking up Streets.-The Gasworks Clauses Act, 1847, contains provisions, on similar lines to those applying in the case of waterworks, for empowering the undertakers

to open and break up streets for the purpose of laying their pipes, and it is usual, as in the case of water, for the special Act to contain a further provision authorising the undertakers to exercise those powers in the case of streets laid out but not dedicated to public use.

Supply of Gas.-With regard to the supply of gas the 1847 Act merely conferred upon the undertakers a power of contracting to give supplies, and did not lay upon them any compulsory obligation to supply. Section 13 of the 1847 Act enables the undertakers to contract with any person for lighting or supplying with gas any public or private building, and to contract with the authorities having the control of the streets within the limits of the special Act for lighting the same or any of them with gas, and to contract for providing any such person or authority with lamps, lamp posts, burners and pipes for such purpose, and for the repair thereof.

In incorporating the Gasworks Clauses Acts in a special Act it is now usual to amend this section by adding after any public or private building" the words "or any premises."

The Act of 1871 introduced a compulsory obligation to give a supply, but only as regards premises situate within 25 yards from any main of the undertakers, or such other distance as may be prescribed in the special Act. For such premises the owner or occupier may require the undertakers to give a supply, under such pressure in the main as may be prescribed by the special Act, and to furnish and lay any pipe necessary for the purpose. The obligation is, however, made subject to certain conditions. First, the cost of so much of any pipe as may be laid upon the premises of the owner or occupier, and of so much of any such pipe as may be laid for a greater distance than 30 feet from any pipe of the undertakers, must be defrayed by the owner or occupier. Next, the owner or occupier must serve on the undertakers a notice specifying the premises to be supplied and a day (not being earlier than a reasonable time after service of the notice) when the supply is to commence. Next, they must, if required, enter into a written contract

to receive and pay for a supply of gas for at least 2 years of such an amount that the rent payable for the same shall not be less than 20 per cent. per annum on the outlay of the undertakers upon any pipe to be provided by them for the purpose of the supply. Lastly, they must give to the undertakers, if required, security for payment of all moneys to become due in respect of any such pipe and in respect of the supply of gas. If security is not given in the first instance, or if it become invalid, or is insufficient, the undertakers may, after they have given a supply of gas to the premises, by notice in writing require the owner or occupier within 7 days to give security for moneys to come due in respect of the supply, and, if the owner or occupier fails to comply, the undertakers may discontinue the supply so long as the failure continues.

The obligation as to supply to public lamps is contained in section 24. The undertakers are required to supply any public lamps within the distance of 50 yards from any of their mains in such quantities as the local or road authorities within the limits of the special Act may from time to time require, and the price to be charged by the undertakers for all gas so supplied is to be settled by agreement between such authorities and the undertakers, and in case of difference by arbitration, regard being had to the circumstances of the case and the price charged to private consumers in the district.

Penalties are provided for under section 36 in case the undertakers neglect or refuse to give a supply at the prescribed pressure to any owner or occupier of premises within the limits of the special Act entitled to a supply, or to give a supply to all or any of the public lamps in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

Regulation of Price, Quality and Pressure. The methods of regulating the charges for the supply of gas and the quality of gas to be supplied have gone through considerable changes. Before 1875 there was always a maximum price prescribed, of so much per thousand cubic feet, and before 1909 the quality was always required to conform to a certain standard of illuminating power, de

scribed as so many candles. From 1875 onwards the plan of regulating the price according to a sliding scale of price and dividend gradually came into operation, and this has now become very usual in the case of companies, though local authorities are still dealt with by the imposition of a maximum price. Under the sliding scale a standard price of gas is fixed and a standard rate of dividend on the ordinary share capital. The company may charge what price they think fit for the gas, but subject to this condition, that, for every penny by which the price per thousand cubic feet exceeds the standard price, the permissible dividend on the ordinary share capital is cut down below the standard rate by a certain percentage, while, for every penny by which the price per thousand cubic feet is below the standard price, the dividend may, if the profits permit, rise above the standard rate by a similar percentage. The percentage is fixed at five shillings per cent. in the case of a standard dividend of 10 per cent.; three shillings and sixpence per cent. in the case of a 7 per cent. standard dividend, and two shillings and sixpence per cent. in the case of a 5 per cent. standard dividend. Sometimes provision is made for what is called a neutral zone, which means that the dividend need not begin to go down below the standard rate until the price of gas has risen, say, two or three or four pence above the standard price, or, it may be, that the dividend may not begin to go up above the standard rate until the price of gas has gone down, say two or three or four pence below the standard price. From 1909 onwards it gradually became usual to regulate the quality of the gas by a standard of calorific or heating power, instead of a standard of illuminating power, this change of practice being brought about as a result of the substitution of gas mantles for flat-flame burners. In the case of mantles the light is not derived directly from a burning flame of gas, but from the incandescence of the mantle produced through the heat resulting from the burning of the gas, and the important thing, therefore, is to have gas of good heating quality. In very recent years it has become usual not to require the undertakers to conform to a fixed standard of