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constant service. The Company may give notice to the public
requiring an alteration of these fittings within two months, and if
the order is not carried out, the Company can do the work themselves
at the expense of the owner or consumer. Such is a summary
of the new regulations. And no words are now-a-days spared
in their condemnation. On this matter, further, the public have a
right to be heard. The water supply is a great public question, and
directors of Water Companies should remember that they are the
custodians of what is intended for the use of all, and which the
public have entrusted to their care to deal with in the best possible
way, and with the greatest possible consideration for the whole
community. Immediately directors cease to remember they are
accountable to a higher tribunal than a company of shareholders,
they then mistake their position, and fall short in what society
naturally demands from them. The Water Companies are the
creation of the people, permitted by the people, and in all they do
accountable to the people. For the benefit of the one and all—for
the greatest possible good to the greatest possible number; these
are the terms of the Company's trust-deed—the contract between
Company and people. And of course, if the Company are unmindful
of the trust, the public have a perfect right to complain. But
not only must the Company remember the terms of the contract,
but the people must remember them too. And if the Water Companies
allowed a whole district to run short because they were not
sufficiently careful to prevent waste by a few, or the supply of a
whole parish to be contaminated by the carelessness of an individual,
then the public would be justified in complaining that the provisions
of the trust had been violated. It could not be expected that a
constant service, which public and press have demanded so vigorously,
could be granted except under certain conditions. These
conditions should be so drawn as not to be unnecessarily burdensome
or troublesome to the public, whilst sufficient to guard the
water both as to quality and quantity. That to the uninitiated and
uneducated there are difficulties in the regulations, there cannot be
a doubt. In the case of the service-box of the water-closet—
e.g., so constructed as to deliver two gallons —if this quantity is
used up at one time by keeping the valve raised, we shall have a
dry pan until used by the next comer. This is objectionable ; but
then, Londoners require education in the use of the constant supply,