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59
course there is much to be said on the other side, and that is
lucidly given in the objections to the report of the Royal
Commission urged by the London County Council and its
officers.
Although very little is definitely said on the subject, the
impression which the perusal of the report leaves upon the mind
is that the whole control of the water supply, from the sources
to the final delivery to the consumer, should be in the hands of
one authority, and that the time has arrived when competing
companies, the result of private enterprise, should no longer be
left in possession of a monopoly of the primary necessity of
existence.
The information on the whole subject of the Metropolitan
Water Supply given above will enable it to be clearly understood,
and to place in a permanent form for future reference the
necessary data, and will, it is to be hoped, justify this somewhat
condensed statement of the views held by both parties in the
controversy which has now to be finally decided by Parliament.
At the time of writing, owing to severe frost, the supply of
water to whole districts of the Metropolis has been almost
entirely cut off from the inhabitants of this and other localities.
The cause is undoubtedly that the mains and service pipes are
laid too near the surface, and obviously the depth of the service
pipe will depend upon that of the main where the latter is laid
at an insufficient depth. This will strengthen the case for
municipalisation of the water supply to which reference has
been made above.
Factories
and Workshops
Bill.
The Home Secretary has introduced a Bill to
amend and extend the law relating to Factories and
Workshops. In the journal of the Incorporated Society of
Medical Officers of Health, Public Health, the matter has been
somewhat fully gone into and a revised and condensed epitome
is here given.