INTRODUCTION.

PART I.-GAS.

visional

Gasworks

to all new

ALL companies hereafter seeking a special act or a pro- Special acts visional order under "The Gas and Water Works Facilities and proAct, 1870," must have incorporated with their act or order orders. the Gasworks Clauses Acts, 1847 and 1871, which are to be read together as one act. To companies established Application of by act of parliament before July, 1871, it was optional Clauses Acts, to adopt all or parts of the Act of 1847; now such option 1847 and 1871, no longer exists. And by a decision of the Court of companies seeking incorQueen's Bench it has been determined that, so far at least poration. as all the companies which are named in "The Metropolis Gas Act, 1860" are concerned, the Act of 1871 applies as though the companies had been established subsequently to 1871. It remains to be seen whether this decision will be upheld, and whether it will be extended to those companies established before 1871 who have incorporated the provisions of the Act of 1847 by the incorporating clause of their special act. The view of the writers is that the Act of 1871 is only to apply to such companies as have been established since 1871, or to companies established before 1871 who have in any special act, obtained subsequently to 1871, adopted its provisions as though their gas undertaking had been authorized by their subsequent special act. And further, that as it was optional on companies to adopt "The Gasworks Clauses Act, 1847," that now the adoption of the Act of 1871 will entail the adoption of the Act of 1847, for both acts are to be construed together as one act, except where the provisions of the acts are inconsistent, in which case the provisions of the Act of 1871 are to prevail. Besides gasworks

W.

Companies established other than

under parliamentary sanction.

belonging to parliamentary companies, there are still many carried on either under deeds of copartnership or belonging to or managed by lessees or individual proprietors, which are entirely without any legislative sanction. It is quite competent for any person or persons to commence a gas undertaking either under the Joint Stock Companies Acts or as single or joint proprietors, but this is done at great risk, as every opening of the roads or streets is a nuisance at common law, and the company or proprietor may be proceeded against by indictment for every such offence, that is, for acts which are essential to the carrying on of the undertaking. Neither can any public body in whom is vested the charge of streets and roads give such permission as will obviate the liability to proceedings against the proprietors. But it has been held by the Court of Queen's Bench that it is not illegal to grant to a gas company a licence to break up the streets, and that such breaking up is not necessarily a nuisance. It may now be taken as settled that the High Court of Justice will not grant an injunction to restrain a company without parliamentary status from opening the streets to lay mains and service pipes to supply gas to a town, but the common law liability to proceedings cannot be avoided without parliamentary sanction for the works. There is a further risk, and one of great moment under these Competition. circumstances. A company which has expended large

Injunction to

restrain opening streets.

sums of money in erecting works and laying mains, and which for many years has supplied a district as a joint stock company, is always exposed to the possibility of a new company being started either by the urban sanitary authority, if they can obtain the sanction of the Local Government Board to borrow the necessary monies, or by consumers in the town, or persons ever on the look out for a profitable adventure, and obtaining over the heads of the original company parliamentary powers. And it has happened that subsequent endeavours on the part of the company to place themselves under parliamentary restrictions with parliamentary powers have been altogether unsuccessful.