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50
WATER-SUPPLY.
and sufficient," and for this purpose "to contract
with any person whomsoever to do and execute all
such works, matters, and things as shall be necessary
and proper, and to require that houses shall be
supplied with water," and to "make and levy water
rates upon the premises, at a rate not exceeding
twopence per week." With a power like this in
your hands, you would easily enforce for the City
of London whatever method of supply you might deliberately
believe to be best; and you would then
be enabled and entitled, in the application of other
clauses in your Act, to require of landlords acting
under your orders, a far completer, though less
expensive, improvement of their property than you
are yet in a position to obtain.
In submitting to your Honourable Court my
views as to the expediency of your having a controlling
power over the supply of water, I am glad
to find myself supported by the recorded opinion of
the present Lord Mayor, himself formerly the chairman
of a commission of sewers; and I am induced
to believe that such an addition to your functions
might not be objectionable to the water companies,
as I observe that Sir William Clay, the chairman of
two metropolitan companies, has expressed himself
strongly on its "great and obvious convenience."
2. Of equal importance with anything which relates
to the distribution of water are those momentous
questions which relate to its quality, and