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128
West Middlesex and Grand Junction Companies to move in the
matter. The views expressed by the Secretaries were to the effect
that the Companies, being trading bodies, did not care to offend
their customers: the regulation was intended to prevent waste of
water, simply, and as they had plenty of water they didn't care
about the waste. I failed in the attempt to convince these gentlemen
that the Commissioners, in framing the regulation, had in
view the removal of a dangerous nuisance. I may add that under
regulations for the construction of house drainage, which have been
enforced for some time past in this Parish, waste-pipes are not
allowed to have direct communicaion with the drains.
I need hardly remind your Vestry that the subject of water
supply has constantly engaged my attention; or that the matters
referred to in Colonel Bolton's June report have always formed the
subject of comment in my Annual Reports. I was glad therefore
that the subject had attracted the attention of the Local Government
Board, and I ventured to suggest the desirability of a reply
being sent to the Board's communication directed to call their
attention to the necessity of such an alteration in the law as would
give Nuisance Authorities co-equal powers with the Companies
to enforce the regulations. No doubt it is true, as Colonel Bolton
states, that, if not the "only," at any rate a "remedy" for the
state of affairs described by him will (ultimately) be found in the
establishment of the "constant supply system," and the consequent
abolition of unfit receptacles. To how slight an extent that
system has been introduced in this Parish the facts above
mentioned sufficiently show. It is satisfactory to learn that "the
Water Companies are being urged to extend the system in their
respective districts with the least possible delay;" it being now
ten years since the Act was passed, the primary object of which
was supposed to be to provide the constant supply with the least
possible delay.
GAS.
The subjoined tables from the quarterly reports of the Chief Gas
Examiner exhibit at a glance the principal results (averages) of
the daily testings, at Ladbroke Grove Station, of the "common