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233 [1899
3. A Draw Tap for dietetic purposes has been fixed to the main
supply pipe in a suitable position, and in the case of houses let in
flats that a similar tap has been fitted to each tenement.
4. The storage cistern has been placed in an easily accessible
position and has been of sufficient capacity for the household
requirements for at least twenty-four hours.
The New River Company still adheres to its regulation
requiring a storage cistern to each house. I have, however, always
advised that water should not be drawn from these receptacles for
dietetic purposes, as it is a rare thing to find that the occupiers
systematically and thoroughly cleanse them. The Vestry holds
similar opinions, and hence the third regulation, insisting on
a separate draw tap from the supply pipe "in a suitable position,"
was adopted. In nearly all houses that possessed draw taps prior to
the adoption of this regulation, it was found that they were situated
in the coal cellar or in some dark hole close to the point where the
service pipes entered the buildings. Now they are invariably placed
in such a position in the kitchen or scullery as will render them
most available for use.
The fourth regulation was adopted in order to prevent the
cisterns, which the New River Company require, being placed in
positions not easily accessible for cleansing. Hitherto they were
placed in positions which the builder of the house most fancied,
perhaps on the roof, on a staircase landing, in a W.C., under the
bedroom floor, in sleeping rooms, or in some secret recess which
could only be approached by means of a long ladder through a small
opening in the ceiling of the staircase where its existence after a
time has been forgotten.
I find it stated in the last annual report of the Local Government
Board that two districts in Islington, containing 4,974 houses,
were brought under constant water supply in 1898. The New River
Company, from which the local supply is entirely drawn, supplied
during that year for all purposes 13,719,506,190 gallons of water.
Q