In the Matter of the Application of Niagara Falls Gas & Electric Light Co., and Albion Power Co., see Application of Niagara Falls Electrical Transmission Co., ante, p. 27.

In the Matter of the Application of Nassau Light & Power Company for consent to acquire 3,500 shares of the capital stock of the Oyster Bay Electric Light & Power Co.

Nassau Light & Power Company of Roslyn petitioned June 20, 1906, for consent to acquire 3,500 shares, the total outstanding issue, of the capital stock of the Oyster Bay Electric Light & Power Company, of the par value of $35,000, at $26,250, or $7.50 per share, par $10. The proposed purchase was to be from individual owners, the president of the Nassau Company holding 3,401 shares. The petitioner was organized to operate in the towns of Hempstead, No. Hempstead and Oyster Bay, among other places supplying a part of Oyster Bay. Its authorized capital was $1,500,000, of which $431,000 was issued. The authorized assets were valued by an expert at $977,000 and it had obligations of upwards of $750,000. The Oyster Bay Company also supplied another portion of Oyster Bay. By an agreement between the companies the territory was divided. Several other companies had franchises in the same towns, but no company actually occupied that portion supplied by the Oyster Bay Company. The authorized capital of this Company was $40,000 and bonds to the amount of $11,500 were outstanding. The original cost of the plant was $35,000; physical property was valued at $22,000, an equity of $10,500 above the mortgage, and the capacity of its plant 200 H. P., actually using about 100 H. P. ́

A hearing was held July 6, 1906, at the Capitol, at which Henry A. Uterhart, of Uterhart & Graham, appeared for the petitioner, there being no opposition. It was proposed to make payment of the stock from monthly earnings and the proceeds of loans. Ten cents per kilowatt is the present average charge for current in Oyster Bay and it was proposed to make it 12 with the addition of a day service and include lamp renewals not now furnished. The plant of the Oyster Bay Company would be utilized during the summer time for the peak of the load.

The following was adopted:

Ordered, That said application for authority to purchase thirtyfive hundred (3,500) shares, at the price of seven dollars and fifty cents ($7.50) per share, of the capital stock of said Oyster Bay Electric Light & Power Company of the par value of ten dollars ($10) per share, be and the same is hereby denied.

COMPLAINTS-PRICE OF GAS AND ELECTRICITY.

Other provisions.

22 c.p. and statutory provision
as to purity.

22 c.p. and statutory provision
as to purity.

22 c.p. and statutory provision
as to purity.

22 c.p. and statutory provision
as to purity.

22 c.p. and statutory provision
as to purity.

22 c.p. and statutory provision
as to purity.

22 c.p. and statutory provision
as to purity.

22 c.p. and statutory provision
as to purity.

22 c.p. and statutory provision as to purity.

22 c.p. and statutory provision as to purity,

22 c.p. and statutory provision as to purity.

22 c.p. and statutory provision as to purity.

18 c.p. and 600 B. t. u. per c. f.; 3 in. pressure not exceeded.

The New York Mutual Gas Light Co. P. Finkelstein et al. customers.

$1.00 per M.

80c. per M.

May

1, 1906

The New York Mutual Gas Light Co. James T. Coughlin et al, customers.

$1.00 per M

80c. per M.

May

1, 1906

In the Matter of the Complaints against the New York City Gas Companies.

As was stated in the first annual report, the Commission began on November 20, 1905, an investigation, as a result of complaints submitted to it, into the price, purity, pressure and quality of gas sold by the various companies operating in the boroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx, and Brooklyn. These complaints were submitted to the Commission, in accordance with section 15, of chapter 737, of the Laws of 1905, by 100 or more consumers of gas of each company against which complaint was made, and were directed against the following companies:

Consolidated Gas Company of New York, operating in the borough of Manhattan,

The Standard Gas Light Company, operating in the borough of Manhattan,

New Amsterdam Gas Company, operating in the borough of Manhattan,

The New York Mutual Gas Light Company, operating in the borough of Manhattan,

Central Union Gas Company, operating in the borough of The Bronx,

Northern Union Gas Company, operating in the borough of The Bronx,

Brooklyn Union Gas Company, operating in the borough of Brooklyn.

This investigation, in so far as it affected the companies operating in the boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx, was completed on February 23, 1906, when an order was made by the unanimous. report of the Commission, fixing the price of gas sold by the Consolidated Gas Company, The Standard Gas Light Company, the New Amsterdam Gas Company, The New York Mutual Gas Light Company and the Central Union Gas Company, at 80 cents. a thousand cubic feet, and by the Northern Union Gas Company, which operates in the sparsely settled portion of the borough of The Bronx, at 85 cents a thousand cubic feet.

The action of the Commission was shortly followed by the passage of an act by the Legislature (chap. 125 of the Laws of 1906), which was approved by the Executive, fixing the price of gas in the City of New York (with some minor territorial exceptions), at 80 cents a thousand cubic feet. This action of the Legislature applied to the Brooklyn Union Gas Company, operating

in the borough of Brooklyn, as well as to the Manhattan and Bronx companies, and as a result of it the Commission suspended its investigation into the cost of making and distributing gas by the Brooklyn Union Gas Company.

Bills of complaint were filed in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, either by or in behalf of the companies operating in the boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx which were affected by the order of the Commission and the act of the Legislature fixing the price of gas at 80 cents a thousand cubic feet and in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of New York, making the Commission, the Attorney-General and the District Attorneys of New York and Kings counties defendants in an action in equity to prevent the enforcement of the order of the Commission and the act of the Legislature, and to determine the constitutionality of the law creating the Commission and the subsequent law fixing the price of gas. These actions are now pending.

The order of the Commission in the ease of the Consolidated Gas Company of New York, which is the same as that made in cases of the other Manhattan and Bronx companies, with the exception of the Northern Union Gas Company, where, as has already been stated, the Commission fixed the price of gas at 85 cents a thousand cubic feet, is as follows:

Ordered that on and after the first day of May, 1906, the maximum price for gas which shall be charged by the Consolidated Gas Company of New York in the borough of Manhattan, city of New York, State of New York, be and is hereby fixed at 80 cents per thousand cubic feet; and it is further

Ordered that the gas furnished, sold and delivered by the Consolidated Gas Company of New York shall have an illuminating power of not less than twenty-two sperm candles of six to a pound. burning at the rate of 120 grains of spermaceti per hour, tested at a distance of not less than one mile from the distributing holder by a burner consuming five cubic feet of gas per hour, as is now provided by law; and it is further

Ordered that the gas furnished, sold and delivered by the Consolidated Gas Company of New York shall not contain in each 100 cubic feet of such gas more than five grains of ammonia, nor more than 20 grains of sulphur, nor more than a trace of sulphuretted hydrogen.

As the gas supplied to all customers of the Consolidated Gas Company is delivered through the same service mains as gas sup