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126
its amendment by the Royal Commission on the Housing of the
Working Classes. And although a house without a supply 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" are not of the "prescribed" character.
Oddly enough, 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, and the Nuisance Authority may be, and
often is, left in ignorance of the fact for weeks together. Moreover,
when proceedings are taken for restoration of.supplyj 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
covered by the demand note, so that no necessity for cutting off
the water may arise. 1 see no reason, moreover, why the companies
should not be endowed with the same facilities for recovering
their water rentals as a " nuisance authority ' for the recovery
of its rates, and these are simplicity itself. Water companies,
howeyer, are naturally enough unwilling to be at the trouble of
taking legal proceedings, although the cost would fall on the
defaulting person, when they can so easily put the "screw" on
their " tenants " and make the Sanitary Authority, in effect, their