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allowed to exist at all, not even in stables. Cisternage can
always be provided in the roof, if nowhere else.
Regulation 17, which prohibits the bringing into use of
wooden receptacles (e.g. butts) without a proper metallic lining,
is constantly violated.
The power to inflict penalties for breach of the regulations is
conferred bv section 20 of the Act. The regulation relating to
penalties (31) runs as follows:—
" Every person who shall wilfully violate, refuse, or neglect to comply
with, or shall willfully do or cause to be done, any act, matter, or
thing, in contravention of these regulations, or any part thereof,
shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty in a sum not
exceeding £5."
It would be well to ascertain by a test case whether a sanitary
authority has power to enforce the regulations—other than 14 ?
The validity of many acts done in the name of your vestry
would depend on the reply to this question. Again, are the
regulations to be read with the Acts, and can the Companies be
compelled to carry out the regulations ? Surely some penalty
should attach to their default ? The Companies have power, and
may be required by the Local Government Board, to " repeal or
alter any of the regulations ... or make new regulations "
(section 18, Water Act, 1871); and should the Companies fail to
make regulations the Local Government Board may. Section
19 is as follows:—
" In case any Company does not make regulations within the time
specified in this Act, or in case any Company, on being requested
in writing by the Metropolitan Authority,* or by any ten consumcrt
of the water supplied by that Company, to repeal or alter any of
the regulations for the time being in force; or to make new regulations
instead of any of the same, refuse so to do, the Local
Government Board may, if they think fit, appoint a competent and
impartial person, of engineering knowledge and experience, to
report to them as to such regulations as may be necessary for the
• The Metropolitan Board of Works is the Metropolitan Authority. In the section as
enacted the official authority is the Board of Trade, whose powers were subsequently transferred
to the Local Government Board,