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119
the other occupants, being lodgers, were able and willing to pay
the rate, rather than have the water cut off, the money would not
be received. The full punishment for trouble given, whatever the
cause, must be borne (viz., a pecuniary fine, i.e., the cost of laying-on
the water) by the offending owner or occupier, to say
nothing of the great, possibly dangerous, inconvenience occasioned
to the innocent tenant or lodgers. In many cases, doubtless, the
water is immediately laid on again,the cost to the owner or occupier
not being considerable, nor the inconvenience to the lodgers
great, because not of long duration ; but the public will have
been put to a certain inconvenience by repeated opening-up of
the public road, an operation which cannot fail of being more
or less injurious to the general interests represented by the
local authority.
By section 70, a Company has power to require payment of the
rate quarterly in advance, and by section 68 it is provided that the
rate, " except as hereinafter and in the Special Act mentioned,
shall be paid by, and be recoverable from, the person requiring,
receiving, or using, the supply of water."
By Section 54, where constant supply is not given the Company
may cut off the supply, should the apparatus be out of order:
the following section imposes a penalty for waste of water arising
from defects in the supply apparatus, and Section 56 enables the
Company to repair apparatus at the cost of the person allowing
the same to be out of repair. These powers, so far as I know,
are never put in force.
Sections 58 and 59 have an important bearing on the question
under consideration, and if they were put in force people
would be careful to prevent the water from being cut off, or to
secure its being laid on again speedily when cut off, for section 58
imposes a penalty, not exceeding five pounds, on any person
giving away the Company's water, or allowing any person,
other than a water-rate payer, to take water from a pipe or
cistern, while section 59 imposes a penalty, not exceeding ten
pounds, for (what practically amounts to the offence of) stealing
a Company's water.