The Christchurch Gas, Coal, And Coke Company, Limited. R. C. Bishop, secretary; and A. Neil, manager of the works. Offices, corner of Worcester street and Oxford Terrace; show-rooms, 199 Colombo Street; works, Waltham Road, Sydenham. This large and successful company was established in 1864. It has now a capital of £160,000, of which £120,000 is paid up. Its reserve fund exceeds £16,000. The value of its working plant, mains, meters, freehold property, and buildings is over £120,000, besides which a sum exceeding £7500 is invested on good securities. The company has paid a steady dividend at the rate of ten per cent per annum. Twelve thousand tons of coal are carbonised every year, the product being 114 million cubic feet of gas, which is disposed of at the rate of 6s 3a per 1000 feet for household consumption, and 5s per 1000 feet for motive power. There are eighty-four miles of mains laid down in the city and suburbs, and the number of consumers exceeds 4500. Formerly there were three large gas-holders at the works with a capacity, respectively, of 340,000, 80,000, and 40,000, or a total of 460,000 cubic feet; and a fourth, with a capacity of 400,000 cubic feet, has recently been erected. The number of retorts is 127, capable of producing 650,000 cubic feet of gas daily. The company claims to be the only gas company in the Southern Hemisphere which manufactures its own gas stoves, a very large number of which have already been made, and admitted to be equal, if not superior, to the imported article.