§ Major NEWMANasked the President of the Board of Trade whether at a conference that recently took place between his Department, the Tottenham Light and Gas Company, and the local authorities of the districts served by the company it was agreed that each local authority might test the gas for calorific power once per day; if so, why have the Board now made an Order restricting the testing by all the authorities to once per day at each station without hearing the reasons which the local authorities desired to advance against this course; and whether, in view of the disadvantages under which consumers are now placed in the matter and quality and price of the gas supplied, the Board will give them all the protection possible?
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Sir A. STANLEYThe gas supplied by the Tottenham District Light, Heat, and Power Company may be tested at three separate testing places, and, in accordance with the uniform practice of Parliament in local Acts relating to gas undertakings, the Board of Trade, in their recent Order fixing a calorific standard for the gas supplied by this company, provided that not more than one testing for calorific power should be made at each testing place on any one day. The Board of Trade do not think that, as a general rule, they are justified in imposing conditions in Orders of this nature more onerous than those imposed by Parliament on other gas undertakers in like circumstances. The representations made by the local authorities in this particular instance were very carefully considered, and the Board saw no reason to depart from the usual practice.