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summoned in the police court; but the magistrates have no
jurisdiction unless the company proceed within six months of
the debt becoming due ; and the debt, i.e., the rate, is due in
advance. Inasmuch, therefore, as the companies only collect
half-yearly, they must proceed before the expiration of the six
months, and hence have to sue before the second quarter has
expired, which appears to be a hardship. If greater facilities
were given to the companies for recovering the rate, probably
they would be willing to waive their right to cut-off the supply,
or consent to its abolition. A question of this sort probably
does not come within the limits of the enquiry now being made
by the Royal Commission on Water-supply. It might, nevertheless,
be brought to their attention, for, from the public health
point of view, it is one of great importance.
Nuisance from Cutting-OFF.—As above stated, a technical
nuisance is created by cutting-off the water supply.
Actual nuisance also may result, of which a striking instance
occurred last year at Hooper's-court and Garden-row Knightsbridge.
This property, since demolished, comprised thirty-four
little houses built, many years ago, on garden spaces at the
rear of houses in Brompton-road, a few doors west of Sloanestreet.
On the 21st March, the weekly tenants living at Hooper'scourt
(Nos. 7 to 26) and Garden-row, to the number of 140,
received a week's notice to quit the houses of which many of
them had been in occupation for many years. They were
respectable people who paid their rent and found employment
in the locality. Needless to say, great distress was caused by
the requirement to leave, owing to the difficulty of finding new
homes. Some of the people succeeded in doing this; others, in
occupation of eleven houses, lingered on after the 28th, trying
their best to find lodgings within a convenient distance of their
work. Technically, of course, they were trespassers. In order
to get them out, by making their homes unfit for human habitation,
the Chelsea Water Works Company were ordered by