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purpose, with the sanction of the Treasury, Mr. R. E. Middleton,
M. Inst., C.E. was appointed.
The inquiry, as far as possible, was conducted in two
divisions, the first of which comprised all the particular
evidence as to the individual circumstances of the Water
Companies at the present time, and the anticipations of the
future which might be based upon them. Under this division
was taken the evidence of the Metropolitan Water Companies
as to the quantity of water which they were daily supplying per
head of the population, the sources at their command to meet
that supply, and the grounds upon which, in their opinions,
future demands ought to be based; the evidence of the Officers
of the Conservators of the Rivers Thames and Lea as to the
powers of the Water Companies to abstract water from those
Rivers and the measures taken to prevent their pollution; the
evidence as to the amount of rainfall in the valleys of the
Thames and Lea, and the existing pollutions of these Rivers;
evidence prepared at the General Register Office as to the
populations of the areas affected by the inquiry; and, lastly,
evidence offered by councils of counties and by corporations
and local boards within the watersheds. Nearly the whole of
this division of the evidence was taken before the end of July,
1892; and the sittings of the Commissioners from the month
of October of that year were mainly devoted to the second
division of evidence, which included the general evidence of
engineers, geologists, chemists, bacteriologists bearing upon the
subject as a whole.
The areas affected by the enquiry may be defined as
extending over “Greater London” as that name is used in the
General Register Office, where it is applied to the area included
within the Metropolitan and City Police districts. Such area
includes all parishes wholly comprised within a circle of 15
miles radius from Charing Cross, and all other parishes of
which any part is included within a circle of 12 miles radius
from the same centre. Greater Lcndon thus not only includes