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107
Water Supply: The Cutting-off Powers of the Companies.—In
dealing with the question of water supply in my
Annual Report for 1882 (pp. 117-126), I recited the powers of
the companies, referring especially to the power to cut off water
for nonpayment of water rents, and I urged that the companies
should be left to their remedy for the recovery of debts like other
traders. My views on the subject have strengthened with lapse
of time and accumulated experience. The law, however, remains
in its original unsatisfactory state, notwithstanding recommendations
for its amendment by the Royal Commission on the Housing
of the Working Classes. And although a house without a supply
of water must be in a state of nuisance, the companies are under
no obligation to give notice to the Sanitary Authority of cutting
off, unless, where there is constant supply, the service has
been discontinued because the "fittings" were not of the
"prescribed" character; for, oddly enough, the absence of the
prescribed fittings, which entitles the company to cut off the
water, constitutes a statutory nuisance within Section 11 and
Sections 12 and 19 (inclusive) of the Nuisances Removal Act
for England, 1855, and is "presumed to be such as to render
the premises unfit for human habitation," even although the
premises may be supplied with water. But should the premises
have been deprived of water by the act of the company
for non-payment of the rate, the law has nothing to say to
the matter. The Nuisance Authority may be, and often is,
left in ignorance of the fact for weeks together. And when proceedings
are taken for restoration of supply, supposing the Vestry's
notice be disregarded, it is within the discretion of the Justices
to make such Order as they think fit, and to decide, should their
Order be disobeyed, whether or no the house is "unfit for
human habitation," and ought or ought not to be closed."
Looking at the water companies' powers from a sanitary point
of view it seems to me reasonable—while the law is in its present
unsatisfactory state—that a company should demand payment of
the rate in advance, in the case of a bad tenant, and take proceedings
to enforce payment prior to the expiration of the period
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