SPLITTING LEGAL HAIRS OVER GAS.
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IT APPEARS as if the way of the gas-user, like that of the transgressor, is destined to be hard. Legitimatecriticism, risliciale, and contempt haying failed to arrest the new movement, a policy of frightfulness is being launched, and in such a way as to provoke feelings of dubiety and hesitancy in the mind of any commercial user, who, harassed by petrol restrictions, seeks to keep things going by the em
ployment of coal town gas. • ■ "Gas supplied ter motors does not come under the head or • rower Purposes.' " So say wiseacre•s of Nottingham, Leeds and Liverpool. Nottingham relates that " there is no obligation on the part of the corporations to supply gas for any other purpose than for actual use on the premises to where a supply isafforded." This cryptic utterance conveys the impression that a garage proprietor must not sell gas to his customers who have made conversions, and emphatically warns motor users that they may expect no assistance from the 'authorities in regard to the provision of facilities upon their own premises. Leeds Corporation goes further by giving notice to one of our readers "not to use power-gas for driving motors as it is not for power." The gas company of Liverpool maintains that it is exceeding its legal powers to supply gas for re-sale. . " It will be noticed that both municipally-owned and private concerns; who have received the monopoly for the supply of a commodity, have assumed a common policy. True, the policy has only been adopted in a few places and the edict loses a good deal of its sting from the absence of any declaration to cut off existing supplies If the notices are disregarded, but it is directly intimidatory inasmuch as no vehicle user desires to buy a lawsuit when he carries out his conversion or desires to be met with a refusal of a gas supply when he runs into the objectionable areas.
' We are not disposed to launch a controversy as to whether gas used for motor propulsion is being consumed in the form of power. From the legal point of view there may be a subtle distinction governing this issue of which we wot not, but from the horse-sense angle, seeing that gas so used is being consumed neither for lighting, heating, nor cooking, it Seems fairly obvious that motor application conforms with the generally accepted interpretation of the word " power."
For our purposes, however, we will accept the official reasoning, inexplicable as it may seem. Now, for many years gas concerns, both municipal and private, .havesbeen profiting fronsjhe. meter sub-letting ordinance. That is to Say, a. tenant is at liberty to instal a separate pre-paid meter in each of the roOms he sub-lets,. such meters being subsidiary to his °Wt. The tenant buys his gas by measurement, that is, go much per 1000 cubic ft., and re-sells it by the penny or shillingsworth as the ease may be: It is itamateirial• to what purK)ise the gas so sold is put Such gas is nc■t being goldfor power! If gag can be Sold in this manner in any dwellings, why-should it not be vended upon identical lines in a garage? ' The attitude of a few institutions is deplorable : ambiguity such as this is frank discouragement,. which is More destructive than honest ashnission of inability to supply from pressure of demand in. more urgent directions, or decisive refusal to supply. But the commercial-motor user to-day is in no mood to split such fine hairs. If the use is illegal, let the gas companies say so: then, knowing Where we Stand, we can take steps to remove the disability. But shadowy obstacles are ever impossible to surmount, especially when, as in the present instance, the gas industry of the country:, as a whole, is not prepared to recognize the fine points discovered by the Fathers of Nottingham and Leeds. Our old friend Canute died quite a few years ago : his re-incarnation to-day when effort is being sorely tried to make ends meet, would be a calamity. It is the man of ingenuity and enterprise, even if such inVolve a slightly stepping-over any existing legal frontier, who earns the gratitude of the community, not the individuals who strive to trip him up.