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50 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
To abate this presumed waste, water-meters are used in many places—about 500 in
Glasgow. No doubt, as usual, a greater demand would lead to the discovery of a cheap
and efficient apparatus. * Mr. Manwaring, of Southampton, has a cheap and simple one for
water-closets'; and there is one not very cheap and not very simple, in use for drinking
purposes, in this and other parishes.
The advantages of a constant supply are enormous. The poor would certainly obtain
their quantity, which they now rarely if ever do; and if supplied within the house it is not at
all probable that there would be much waste. The evidence as will be seen at the end of
this paper is, that even out of the house, increased trust begets increased care, and the
people so supplied all say there is no waste to speak of. In answer to the application of
the Bermondsey Vestry, the Southwark Company sent a report which, at the first sight,
appears to be a complete condemnation of the constant system. The statement of the engineer
is, to say the least of it, very curious when compared with the answers from the
officials of the various localities enjoying the benefits of a constant supply; and it appears
still more inconsistent with his own evidence on another occasion.
He now says a constant supply cannot be—that it is a failure. They say, "We have
enjoyed it for years, and it answers admirably." The result, Mr. Quick says, of the whole
evidence coming from different localities, and arising under a great variety of circumstances
and conditions is conclusive against the system. It must, however, be recollected that he
is the professional advocate of the water company. Wherever the experiment has been
tried, he says, it has entailed the greatest inconvenience on both the companies supplying
and on the consumers. "In no single instance," he says, " it is believed has it succeeded
in giving a really constant supply." "In the towns of Bristol, Croydon, Dover, Wolverhampton,
Preston, Woolwich, Rugby, and others, where the works have been laid out
with every provision to meet the requirements of a constant supply, it is found that, either
from wilful or accidental waste, the system has proved more or less completely a failure,
after entailing upon the ratepayers an enormous expenditure." Already from Preston,
Croydon and Worthing have denials and explanations come, rendering it more than difficult
to Understand Mr. Quick's adverse, but not disinterested statements.
Such are the leading points in Mr. Quick's report sent to the Bermondsey Vestry. It
does not, however, appear that Mr. Quick, the Southwark Company's engineer, was
always quite so confident as to the impracticability of the constant system. In his evidence
to the Board of Health, he states the waste, under the intermittent system, as tested in an
instance or two by himself, to be thrice the quantity used; that the water in butts and
cisterns is liable to become tainted, unless they are properly situated and attended to. In
one case of constant supply, in which he was himself concerned, he says the difference was
very great in favour of the new mode—there was no more quarrelling for water. The advantage
was so great that increased rents could easily be obtained; and he thinks the
advantage might be extended not only for the benefit of the people, but for the company
also. There were difficulties, he said, but they were manageable. These are perhaps the
reasons why his own tenants have in one parish been for years supplied on the constant
system without cisterns. He certainly advised cisterns, but then he is careful to explain
that they were not to be reservoirs, but only to prevent waste at low levels. The water, he
said, when exposed to a tainted atmosphere, becomes tainted, but taken direct from the
main, it is very pure.