New South Wales: Singleton Gas Act of 1884 47 Vic (NSW)

1884. 47° VIC, 27 Singleton Gas. An Act to enable Alexander Munro to erect 8% Gas. Gas-works in the Borough of Singleton and to regulate the establishment and carrying out of Gas-works in Singleton aforesaid and to regulate the sale supply and quality of the Gas to be supplied and for other purposes. [16th May, 1884. | 7UWEREAS it is expedient that the Borough of Singleton in the Preamble. Colony of New South Wales should be supplied and lighted with gas And whereas Alexander Munro of Greenwood Singleton 'here- inafter designated the promoter desires to establish and carry out works for such purposes and other purposes incidental thereto in the said borough And whereas the Municipal Council of the said borough have at the request of the promoter and in consideration of the benefits to arisc from the establishment and carrying out of such works consented to the vesting in the said promoter of all necessary powers and authoritics so far as the rights and interests of the said Municipal Council are concerned Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of New South Wales in Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same as follows :— « . The promoter is hereby authorized and empowered Dy Authority to erect himself his servants contractors agents and workmen from time to zasometors break "P time to make ercet sink lay place fit maintain and repair such retorts gasometers meters yeecivers cisterns engines machines euts drains sewers watercourses pipes reservoirs buildings and other works and devices of such construction and in such manner as the promoter shall think necessary or proper for the purpose of carrying out the operations of the promoter in respect of and incidental to the making and supplying of gas in conformity with this Act and also for all such purposes to open and break up the soil and pavement of the several streets and bridges within the limits of the borough and suburbs aforesaid and to open and break up any sewers drains or tunnels within or under such streets and bridges and to erect posts pillars lamps lamp- ° irons and other apparatus in or upon the same streets and bridges or against any wall or walls crected on or adjoining to any of them and to dig and sink trenches and drains and to lay mains and pipes and put stop- -cocks siphons plugs or branches from such mains or pipes in under across or along such strects and bridges and also with such consent as hereinafter mentioned to do the like in under across or along any private roads ways lanes passages buildings and places and from time to time to cut stop remove alter repair "replace and relay such main-pipes stop-cocks siphons plugs branches or other apparatus Provided always that nothing in this section contained shall be deemed to authorise the promoter his servants contractors agents or workmen to enter into or upon any private lands buildings or places for any of the purposes aforesaid or to carry out thereon any work authorised by this Act without the previous consent in writing of the occupiers thereof but the promoter may at any reasonable time by himself his servants agents or workmen enter upon any land or place wherein any pipe has already been laid down or placed in pursuance of this Act and repair or alter the existing pipe or lay or place any new pipc in its stead And provided also that the promoter shall give forty-cight hours' ower to make contracts for supply of gas. And carry out works for that purpose. Occupier obstructing removal of apparatus. Fraudulent tise of gas obstruction of work- men damages to apparatus. 47 VIC. 1884, Singleton Gas. hours' notice in writing to the Council Clerk of the Borough prior to the opening or breaking up as aforesaid of any street road pavement sewer drain or tunnel within the said Borough. 2. It shall be lawful for the promoter to contract with any person for supplying with gas any such person or any street way lane passage manufactory shop warehouse public or private house building or place and for such purpose from time to time to lay down carry fit up connect and furnish any pipe branch or burner lamp meter or other apparatus from or in connection with any main pipe or to lay down any new main which for such purposes may be required and to let any such apparatus for hire for such sum as may be agreed upon which sum may be recovered in like manner as any rent or remunera- tion for the supply of gas Provided always that in all cases where damage may be done by the promoter his agent workmen or others in the course of laying on or removing apparatus the said damage shall be made good at the expense of the promoter and in case he shall delay within a reasonable time to make good such damage the owner or occupier of such premises may make good the same and recover the expense thereof from the promoter in the same manner as is herein provided for the recovery of any sum of money payable under the provisions of this Act Provided also that if any owner or occupier of any building tenement or place or any person acting for him shall refuse reasonable access in pursuance of the provisions of this or the sixteenth section of this Act to the contractors agents workmen or servants of the promoter for the purpose of removiug any such pipe burner meter or apparatus placed or introduced into any such building tenement or place by the promoter or shall prevent or obstruct such removal then the said owner occupier or person acting for him shall immediately make payment to the promoter for such pipe burner meter or apparatus and in default of his so doing within three days after demand thereof madc at the same building tenement or place or the residence of the party it shall be lawful for the promoter to make complaint thereof before any Justice of the Peace who may cause to be issued a summons to the person so making default calling on him to show cause before the nearest Court of Petty Sessions to where the building tenement or place is situated why he refuses to pay such demand and thereupon the said Court shail proceed to the adjudication and enforcement of such demand in the manner hereinafter set forth And if any person shali place or lay any pipe to communicate with any main-pipe meter or other apparatus already laid placed or erected by the said promoter or shall use additional burners or burners of larger dimen- sions or of other kind or description than that he has contracted with the promoter to use or shall keep the gas supplied by him burning for a longer time than he has contracted to pay for or shall supply any person with any of the gas supplied to him by the promoter without his consent in writing first obtained or if any person shall wantonly or maliciously hinder or interrupt the contractors workmen agents or servants of the promoter in legally doing or performing any of the Acts aforesaid or in exercising the powers and authorities hy this Act given or if any person shall wilfully negligently or accidentally do or cause to be done any injury or damage to any of the buildings machinery pipes burners lamps meters or apparatus of the promoter or remove the same or cause a waste or improper use of gas supplied by the promoter it shall be lawful for the promoter to make a complaint thereof before any Justice of the Peace who may cause to be issued a summons to the person so offending to appear before the Court of Petty Sessions nearest to the place 'where such offence shall be committed and being thereof lawfully convicted such person shall forfeit and pay to the promoter any sum not exceeding five 1884. 47° VIC. 29 Ny ingleton Gas. five pounds over and above all damages done and over and above all costs such sum to be ascertained by such Court and to be enforced by distress and all proceedings under this Act not herein expressly pro- vided for shall be regulated and conducted in accordance with the Acts in force for the time being respecting summary proceedings before Justices of the Peace and the provisions of such Acts shall so far as the same are applicable be enforced and observed in all proccedings under this Act not herein expressly provided. 3. No pipe burner lamp meter or other apparatus of the pro- Apparatus not liable moter being set up in any building tenement or place shall be subject {er stress execution to distress for rent or shall be taken in execution under any process or * proceeding of any Court of Law or Equity or under any proceedings in insolvency save so far as any process or proceedings against the promoter are concerned. 4. When and so often as the promoter his servants contractors Materials of streets agents or workmen shall have opencd broken up or removed the soil enced to be or pavement of any street or bridge as aforesaid or shall have opened or broken up any sewers drains or tunnels within or under any such streets or bridges the promoter shall make all reasonable dispatch in performance of the work to be done and shall on completion of such work forthwith carry away all rubbish and waste or surplus material and reinstate such pavement stone or other material and render such street or bridge and every such sewer drain and tunnel within or under the same as nearly as possible in the same condition as it was in previously to the disturbance thereof and during the con- Barriers and lightsto tinuanee of such work and until such reinstatement the promoter be kept up. shall set up sufficient barricrs and keep lights burning at night in order to prevent accidents And also when and so often as any gas pitch waste tar waste liquid or other things shall escape or flow from any yyisances, pipe receivers or drain being part of or incidental to the works to be erected under this Act so as to contaminate the air or any stream spring or other watercourse or body of water natural or artificial and render the same unhealthy or offensive or unfit for use it shall be lawful for any person to give notice thereof in writing to the promoter who shall immediately take the most speedy and effectual measures to prevent or remedy the same and if the promoter shall make default in any of the matters so required by him to be performed it shall be lawful for any person to lodge complaint thereof before any Justice of the Peace who may summon the promoter before the nearest Court of Petty Sessions and on proof of such default the said Court of Petty Sessions shall order and direct that the said matters shall be done by the promoter within a reasonable time to be named by such Court and in default of compliance with such order any Justice of the Peace on proof of such default on the part of the promoter and on proof that the complainant or any other person has performed the said work so to be done and of the costs charges and expenses attending the same shall issue a distress warrant against the goods and chattels of the promoter for any amount not excecding the said charges and expenses and the cost of prosecuting such complaint to be paid to the person performing the said work as aforesaid. 5. The price for the gas shall at no time exceed thirteen Price purity and shillings and sixpence per thousand cubic feet and the gas supplied teminaing shall be absolutely free from sulphuretted hydrogen and shall be of Pome Ot ie B88 such minimum quality as to produce from an Argand burner having fifteen holes and a seven-inch chimney consuming five cubic fect of gas per hour a light cqual in intensity to the light produced by fifteen sperm candles of six in the pound burning one hundred and twenty grains per hour, 6. Provision for testing. Appointment of gas examiner, Gas examiner to report &e. Gas examiner how paid. Meters. Borough Council may appoint inspector of meters. egulation of meters. Legal standard. 47° VIC, 1884. Singleton Gas. 6. The promoter shall within twelve months after receiving notice from the Borough Council put up at some testing place to be provided by the said Council within the Borough suitable apparatus for the purposes following :— (1.) For testing the illuminating power of the gas supplied. (2.) For testing the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen in the gas supplied 'The said apparatus shall be in accordance with the Schedule hereunto annexed and shall at all times be kept and maintained in good repair and working order by the promoter. 7. The Borough Council may from time to time appoint a competent and impartial person to be gas examiner to test the gas at the testing place who shall test the illuminating power and purity of the gas supplied on any or every day and the promoter may be repre- sented at the testing if he shall think fit but shall not be entitled either by himself or his representative to interfere in the testing. 8. The gas examiner shall on the day immediatcly following that on which the testing was made by him deliver to the Borough Council a report of such testing and shall deliver a copy thereof to the promoter and such report shall be receivable in evidence. 9. Any gas examiner appointed by the Borough Council shall be paid a salary not exceeding one hundred pounds per annum which shall be paid one moiety by the Council and the other moiety by the promoter. 10. No meter shall be used for ascertaining the quantity of gas sold by the promoter unless the same shall have its measuring capacity at one revolution or complete action of the meter and also the quantity per hour it is intended to measure in cubic feet or multiples or decimal parts of a cubic foot denominated or marked on the outside thereof in legible letters or figures and shall have been tested and stamped as correct by the English Warden of Standards. 11. An inspector of meters may from time to time be ap- pointed by the Borough Council and the said inspector shall at all times when authorized by the Council on the application and at the expense of any consumer of gas supplied by the promoter be entitled to inspect and test the meters erected by the promoter in the premises of the person making such request after giving forty-eight hours' notice of such intended inspection to the promoter and before such inspection the person requiring the same shall deposit in the hands of the Inspector all moneys due or appearing to be due by such person to the promoter on account delivered and in case such deposit shall be in excess of the sum found to be due to the promoter such excess shall be returned. to the consumer. 12. No meter which shall have been fixed by the promoter for use before the expiration of one year of the time when this Act comes into operation shall be allowed to remain in use after the expiration of five years from that time unless it shall have becn tested and stamped as by this Act directed and no meter once tested and stamped under the provisions of this Act shall be allowed to remain in use for more than five years from the time when it shall have been last so stamped unless and until it shall have been retested and restamped in manner aforesaid and whenever the promoter shall knowingly allow any meter to be used in contravention of this section he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings for every such offence. 13. After the expiration of one year from the time when this Act comes into operation the legal standard or unit or measure for the sale of the promoter's gas by meter shall be the cubic foot containing sixty-two and three hundred and twenty-one thousandths (62°321) pounds avoirdupois weight of distilled or rain watcr weighed in air at the temperature of sixty-two degrces of Fahrenheit's thermometer the barometer being at thirty inches. 14. 1884. 47 VI, 31 Singleton Gas. 14, If any person shall forge or counterfeit or cause or procure Forging stamps. to be forged or counterfeited or knowingly act or assist in the forging or counterfeiting any stamp which may hereafter be used for the stamping of any meter under this Act every person so offending shall for every such offence he liable to a penalty not execeding fifty pounds or less than ten pounds and if any person shall knowingly sell utter or dispose of let lend or expose for sale any meter with such forged stamp thereon every person so offending shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds or less than forty shillings and all meters having forged or counterfeited stamps thereon shall be forfeited and des stroyed. 15. All gas supplied' by the promoter shall execpt in case of Pressuro of gas. accident be supplied at such pressure as to balance from midnight to sunset a column of water not less than six-tenths of an inch in height and to balance from sunset to midnight a column of water not less than one inch in height. 16. It shall be lawful for the promoter to cut off and take away Power to cut off gas the supply of gas from the building tenement or other place of every °f 'laulter. person. or body making default in payment after giving twenty-four hours' notice to the occupier and thenceforth to discontinue the supply of gas contracted for with the promoter by such person or body and to enter by himself his agents or workmen into such building tenement or place between the hours of nine in the forenoon and four in the after- noon and remove and carry away any pipe burners lamp meter or other apparatus the property of the promoter and the promoter shall have the like powers with regard to cutting off taking away and discontinuing the supply of gas in the case of the building * tenement or place of any person who shall have been lawfully convic ted as hercinbefore provided of any fraudulent injury to any meter or apparatus on such premises or fraudulent use of the gas of the promoter And in case any person Remedy for reeovery who shall contract with the promoter or agree to take or shall take or use of rents of gas, the gas of the promoter in any building tenement or place or otherwise shall refuse or neglect to pay the sum or sums of money then due under his or their contract for the same to the promoter according to the terms and stipulations thereof it shall be lawful for the promoter to make a complaint of such refusal or neglect before any Justice of the Peace who may cause to be issued a summons to the party so refusing or neglecting calling on him or them to show cause hefore the Court of Petty Sessions in the police district in which such building tenement or place is situated or such user took place why he or they refuses or refuse to pay such sun or sums and thereupon the said Court shall proceed to the adjudication of the said complaint and enforcement of the said demand and costs charges and expenses incurred in the prose- cution thereof by distress and "sale of the goods and chattels of the person so refusing or neglecting to pay. 17. The clerk engineer or other officer duly appointed for such Right of officer to purpose by the promoter may at all reasonable times enter any Dbuild- "Premises. ing tenement or place lighted with gas supplied by the promoter in order to inspect the pipes burners lamps meters or other apparatus of or connected with the works of the promoter to regulate the supply of gas or to ascertain the quantity of gas consumed or supplied and if any person shall hinder any such officer as aforesaid from so entering or making such inspection as aforesaid at any reasonable time such person shall for every such offence forfeit and pay to the promoter a sum of money not exceeding five pounds to he awarded and recovered by the promoter in like manner as the penalties aforesaid. 18. Any person may appeal from the judgment or conviction of Appeal. any Court of Petty Sessions under this Act in the form and manner set forth in the Act fifth William the Fourth number twenty-two. 19, S General rights against promoter reserved If works not con- structed and gas supplied within two years powers to ccasc. General penalty. Interpretation clause, Gas-works may be brought under general Act. Short title. 47° VIC. 1884,, Singleton Gas. 19. Nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to prevent any person from indicting or otherwise proceeding either civilly or criminally against the promoter for nuisance or otherwise in respect of the works or means used or employed by the promoter in exercising the privileges hereby conferred or to prevent the promoter or any per- son from recovering any sum of money or otherwise proceeding in any Court of competent jurisdiction but the promoter or any person to whom any penalty or sum of money may by the provisions of this Act be awarded may elect either to proceed in manner in this Act provided or to proceed for damages or otherwise in any Court of competent, jurisdiction nor shall anything herein. contained limit or in any manner affect the right of any municipality or of any other person or Company hereafter empow ered by the Legislature 'to supply gas to the said Borough of Singleton or other place or to exercise any power which it may be deemed "expedient or necessary to grant for that purpose. 20. Provided always that if within two years after the passing of this Act the promoter shall not supply at a price agreed upon by the promoter and the Borough of Singleton or if no such } price shall be or have been agreed upon then at a reasonable price gas of a good quality and in sufficient quantity to light the roads and streets in Singleton and all houses and buildings situate therein or if the promoter shall after the said period of two years fail so to supply gas for any peviod execed- ing twenty days then and in either of such cases all the powers hereby vested in the promoter shall thereupon cease and determine. 21. If it shall be proved to the satisfaction of any two Justices of the Peace in Petty Sessions assembled that the promoter or any of his officers have been guilty of any default under this Act not other- wise provided for under this Act they shall be liable for cach and every such default to a penalty not exceeding five pounds to be recovered in a summary way. 22. The following words and expressions shall in this Act have the respective meanings hereby assigned to them unless there be some- thing in the context repugnant to such construction The word * promoter" shall mean the said Alexander Munro his representatives or assigns owners for the time-being of the Singleton Gas-works The expression " Singleton Gas-works " shall mean the gas-works and the works connected therewith by this Act authorized to be constructed The word "street"? shall include any square court or alley highway lane road thoroughfare or other passage or place within the limits of this Act The expression "Borough" shall comprise all lands lying within the limits of the Borough of 'Singleton. 23. Nothing contained in this Act shall prevent the said Gas- works being brought under the provisions of any general Act which may be passed by the Parliament of New South Wales applying equally to Companies engaged in the manufacture of gas in the said Colony with reference to the manufacture and sale of eas nor entitle the said promoter to compensation from the public revenue by reason of the provisions of such general Act for the purpose aforesaid being made applicable to and binding upon the said promoter. 24. This Act may he cited as the " Singleton Gas Act of 1884." ° SCHEDULE 1884. 47° VIC. Great Cobar Copper-mining Company Tramway. SCHEDULE. Parr J. 1. Regulations in respect of testing apparatus. (7) The apparatus for testing the illuminating power of the gas shall consist of the most improved form of photometer known together with a proper meter minute clock governor pressure gauge and balance 'The burner to be used for testing the gas shall be an Argand burner having fifteen holes and a seven-inch chimney The candles used for testing the gas shall be sperm candles of six to the pound and two candles shall be used together, 2. The apparatus. (1) For testing the presence in the gas of sulphureited hydrogen A glass vessel containing a strip of bibulous paper moistened with a solution of acetate of lead con- taining sixty grains of crystallized acetate of lead dissolved in one fluid ounce of water. Pant If, 1. Pules as to mode of testing gas. («) Mode of testing for uminating power 'The gas in the photometer is to be lighted at least fifteen minutes before the testings begin and it is to be kept continually burning from the beginning to the end of the tests. Each testing shall include ten observations of the photometer made at intervals of a minute. The consumption of gas is to be carefully adjusted to five cubic fect per hour. The candles are to be lighted at least ten minutes before beginning each testing so as to arrive at their normal rate of burning which is shown when tho wick is slightly bent and the tip glowing The standard rate of consumption for the candles shall be one hundred and twenty grains cach per hour Before and after making each set of ten observations of the photometer the gas examiner shall weigh the candles and if combus- tion shall have been more or less per candle than one hundred and twenty grains per hour he shall make and record the calculations requisite to neutralize the effects of this difference The average of cach sct of ten observations is to be taken as representing the illuminating power of that testing. 2. Mule of testing. (6) For sulphuretted hydrogen The gas shall be passed through ihe glass vessel containing the strip of bibulous paper moistened with the solution of acctate of lead for a period of three miuutes or such longer period as may be preseribed and if any dis- coloration of the test paper is found to have taken place this is held to be conclusive as to the presenee of sulphurettcd hydrogen in the gas.