A crowd of men jostled at the liquor store entrance for a better vantage point, spilling off of the wood-plank sidewalk onto the pot-hole strewn street. Suddenly, a yellow flame burst from the vent, roaring into the night sky, “beautiful and clear, and several feet in height." [1]

Or so the scene may have been outside J.D. Carroll’s liquor store on September 29, 1862, when the Victoria Gas Company’s first customer was served from the company’s new plant in Rock Bay. 

A direct corporate ancestor of B.C. Hydro, the Victoria Gas Company arose from media controversy and dubious business practices. 

While the company was actually formed in late 1860, the founders had been petitioning the colonial government for over a year, since October 26, 1859. [2]   John T. Little and M.L. Calvert cited public safety and crime-reduction as reasons that Victoria should adopt gas for the purposes of lighting. [3]  

The petitioners demanded exclusive rights to provide Victoria with manufactured gas at a fixed price for fourteen years, stating that the “large outlay” of money required for such a venture made monopoly a necessary insurance. 

Many residents were opposed to the granting of monopoly rights to any business. Among them was Amor de Cosmos, editor of the local newspaper, the Daily British Colonist.  On the same day that The Colonist reported Little and Calvert’s petition, de Cosmos railed against the granting of any such right, making clear his belief that no monopoly should be created.[3a] 

Apparently, members of the House of Assembly concurred.  On November 3, 1859, despite offers to reduce the price of gas, the House rejected the petition, citing concerns of foreign ownership and monopoly.

De Cosmos was not satisfied; articles voicing opposition to monopoly continued to appear in the newspaper.  Seemingly in order to put the demands of the Victoria Gas Company in perspective, de Cosmos printed an article from the North American that showed that the price proposed by the company was triple that charged for gas in the eastern U.S. and more than quadruple the price of British gas. 

The British Colonist does not mention the Gas Company again until July 7, 1860, when Donald Fraser and John T. Little are reported to have again submitted a petition to incorporate.  Once again, the petitioners demanded the exclusive right to provide Victoria with gas at a fixed price. 

Once again, de Cosmos used his position as editor to combat what he described as a “heartless endeavour.” [4]   In a July 28, 1860 article, de Cosmo says that the gas monopoly is ”tantamount to a very large tax on everybody, without hope of getting rid of it.” [5]   He called on the public to submit a written complaint, or remonstrance, to the Legislature, asserting their displeasure with monopoly. [6]  

Little and company reacted by circulating their own petition.  Three days after de Cosmo’s call for a remonstrance, another article warned citizens to “spurn the monopoly petition as they would a viper.” [7]  

The next day, August 2, a letter to the editor points out that as monopoly is banned by Federal and State laws, it seems contradictory that a largely American-funded company should try to gain one in Victoria. [8]   The letter, signed ‘Mentor’, states that while town-gas was desirable, monopoly was unacceptable. [9]

Spirited criticism of the gas monopoly continued throughout the summer of 1860.  Several articles make the argument that a gasworks is no different from any other commercial interest and therefore deserves no special treatment: “The manufacture of gas is as well known to-day as the manufacture of beer or whiskey, and we might just as well give a brewer or a distiller a monopoly.” [10]

Another position expressed was that the petitioners were being very exclusive in their stock offerings.  An unsigned article, dated August 8, 1860, accuses the company principals of pricing the stock beyond reach and of not making shares generally available.[11]

By the fall of 1860 the newspaper had changed their tone regarding the proposed gas company.  An October 20 article celebrates the resurrection of the gas bill and details the concessions made by the petitioners: a monopoly of five years instead of fourteen and a reduction in the set price from $12.50 per thousand cubic feet to $7.50. [12]   After crediting public agitation for the concessions gained, the author again rails against monopaoly which, “in any shape, is a vested wrong.”[13]

For the remainder of 1860, newspaper coverage of the gas company is reduced to progress reports of the bill’s passage through the Legislature.  A special committee studied the bill throughout November, and on the twenty-ninth, recommended it be considered by the House.[14]  On December 11, House members made two further amendments to the bill before passing it on to Council: the gasworks was to be constructed on a particular lot and the company would, “Furnish the city with gas at the rate of &1.50 per 1000 cubic feet.”[15]

            A strange gap exists in the newspaper record following the recommendation to Council.  While there are, in the latter part of December 1860, several reports from the House of Assembly, there is no mention of the Gas Bill. 

  In fact, there is no mention until January 31, 1861, when the directors—of the apparently incorporated company—issued a notice stating that all shareholders were required to sign the Registered Bill or risk forfeiture of their allotted shares. 

  Several interesting issues are made apparent in this notice.  First, Jos. J. Southgate is now named as one of the directors.  Southgate, was one of the members of the Legislature that oversaw the passage of the Gas Bill. 

  Second, the connection between John T. Little and the company is made more clear.  Before and during his involvement with the gas company, Little was the proprietor of the Victoria Coal Company.[16] Boosting the gas company seems to have been his way of creating a steady customer.

Notices regarding company shares appeared in the British Daily Colonist throughout 1861. Shares had apparently been bought on credit and the company directors were now calling in the debts. It was during this period that the gasworks were ordered from Scotland, to be shipped around Cape Horn aboard three sailing ships, the Pruth, the Salamander, and the Prince of the Seas.

In November of 1861 the Company was given a six-month extension on the one-year time-period originally granted by the Colonial Government. The extension was granted, presumably, under a clause in the original Act that allowed for delays due to "unavoidable ensualities of the sea." [17]

This extension caused me to wonder about the reasons for the VGC purchasing their gasworks from a supplier in Scotland. For one, the equipment purchased was out-dated.[18] And, for another, why would they have purchased from such a distant supplier while at the same time ensuring that the abovementioned clause was contained in the original act. Coupled with the fact that they were able to collect a substantial amount of capital from their investors which they did not put to work in building the gasworks until after the extension was granted[19], it struck me that this would have afforded the company principals an opportunity to invest the money elsewhere, or at least profit from interest earned.

Construction of the gasworks commenced in late November of 1861, with the foundation stones being laid on the 27th and the first bricks laid on the 28th.[20]

The following spring saw the the commencement of pipe-laying for the distribution of VGC gas, a full fifteen months after the company was formed [21]. In April of 1862 most of the buildings were completed; all that remained was the installation of the newly arrived equipment. The description of the gasworks at that time predicted that gas would be in production by June of that year; a prediction that was off by three months. [22]

A British Daily Colonist article from July of 1862 describes in detail the newly erected gasworks. [23] It is interesting to note that whereas previous articles had stated that the gasworks would be able to produce enough gas for a city five times the size of Victoria, the July 1862 article states that the production capacity would be sufficient for a city ten times that of Victoria. Instead of a shift in the actual capacity of the works, this variance may well stem from the population decline that followed exhaustion of gold in the Interior.

Gas at Last! On September 29, 1862 the Victoria Gas Company's Rock Bay gasworks went into production. The next day saw the lighting of Victoria's first gas lamp, outside Carroll's liquor store. [24]

This site, and this article, have but barely touched the surface of the story of the Victoria Gas Company. The company went on to become the British Columbia Electric Company, which eventually became B.C. Hydro. The popularity of manufactured gas ensured that the company made handsome profits over their first years of operation. So handsome in fact that the public outcry forced the government to impose a special tax on the company, beginning what has now been a long legacy of government intervention in British Columbia's utility companies. The subsequent development of the VGC provides ample opportunity for further microhistorical investigation, which I will hopefully complete later this year.