I move the following amendment standing in the name of Senator Douglas:—
Section 5, sub-section (2). To delete the sub-section and to substitute therefor a new sub-section as follows:—
"(2) Every buyer of gas after the expiration of nine years shall have the right to demand of the undertaker that the meter by means of which such gas is measured shall be restamped according to law; and no such meter shall continue to be duly stamped according to law after the expiration of ten years from the last occasion on which it was duly stamped."
Sub-section (2) of Section 5 provides for the compulsory reverification and restamping of every gas meter once every ten years. That means a very considerable amount of expense to the ordinary small country gas company, and the worst of it is that in a great many cases it is quite a useless expense. I know that the Minister has received opinions very different from the opinions held in England. The Minister has been advised that it is necessary that this should be done every ten years, that meters go wrong, and that this is quite a necessary provision for the protection of the gas consumer. The Board of Trade in England, after investigating the matter, arrived at the opposite view. The amendment proposes to delete the sub-section, and to substitute for it a sub-section making the reverification and restamping of meters compulsory if the gas consumer requires it, and it gives him power to require it at the end of nine years. I would respectfully submit that that gives complete protection to the gas consumer, and I would like to call attention to an amendment which the Minister is about to propose and which I have no doubt the House will accept—Amendment No. 4 on the paper. Under that any consumer of gas can apply, any time he wishes, to have his meter inspected and verified. He will do that at his own risk, because if the meter turns out to be incorrect the gas company will pay for the verification, but if the meter turns out to be right the consumer must pay the cost. There you have a complete protection for the gas consumer all along the line. If you take these two amendments together he is protected during the nine or the ten years by the Minister's amendment, and he would be protected at the end of the ten years' period by the amendment I am moving, because he can get his meter reverified at the expense of the company whether it needs it or not, and when I say at the expense of the company I mean that it will really not be at the expense of the company, because the cost—I would submit, the unnecessary cost—of the reverification of the meters will not be paid by the gas company, but will be paid in the end by the gas consumer, because the price of gas will be put up on account of this expense.
