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promote Bills in Parliament and to negotiate, subject to the
approval of Parliament, for the purchase or lease by them of
the whole or any part of the undertakings of the London
Water Companies. The Companies (excepting the Kent
Waterworks Company) lodged a joint petition, upon which
they appeared in opposition to the Bill, and in which, after
stating their objections to the Bill, they complained that,
after the rejection of a similar Bill last year, they should
again be compelled, at enormous expense, to protect their
undertakings against the creation of a Water Authority
having power to depreciate their value as a preliminary to
acquiring them. They, therefore, submitted that no public
necessity could be shown to exist for granting the powers
sought, and that the preamble of the Bill could not be substantiated
by evidence or argument. The Select Committee
of the House of Commons, to which the Bill was referred,
decided that they would not grant the powers constituting
the Water Committee, but would give the County Council
power to promote Bills in Parliament for acquiring the
undertakings of the Water Companies, and for promoting
inquiries, &c. The Council, whilst regretting the loss of the
Water Committee, decided to proceed with what was the
material part of the Bill, and in the result the Committee
declared the preamble proved, subject to their striking
out all powers for constituting a Water Committee. Clauses
were adjusted, and the Committee fixed £10,000 (instead of
the £5,000 proposed by the Bill) as the amount which the
Council may spend upon inquiries into the London water
question. The feeling of the Committee seems to have been
that, whilst they were prepared to facilitate a course whereby
the Council might acquire the undertakings of the Water
Companies, and have entire control of the water supply of
the Metropolis, they were unwilling to constitute a new
Water Authority, which would have been the effect of allowing
the creation of the proposed Water Committee.