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fortunately adopted the views put forward by the Metropolitan Authority, and
decided that all existing fittings that are sound and efficient, and are not required
to be removed or altered under these regulations, shall be deemed to be 'prescribed
fittings' under the Act (Reg. 33). It is somewhat ominous of the spirit of the
companies that this regulation was opposed by them, and that they deny the
competence of the commission to make it, or to decide in general terms that
existing fittings shall be deemed to be prescribed fittings I have
quoted this regulation first as the one that most nearly affects all householders.
Compared with it, indeed, the remaining regulations are, in a pecuniary point of
view, of secondary importance. They refer, inter alia, to pipes, cisterns, and
taps; the size, weight, position, and character of the pipes, and other apparatus of
supply, being specified, regard being had throughout to the prevention of waste
and of fouling. With few exceptions they are non-retrospective; but Reg. 13 is
properly made retrospective, the object being to secure the proper construction,
maintenance, and placing of cisterns, and inlet or ball taps. Reg. 14 is also
retrospective, and properly so, for its object is to abolish the waste-pipe, a fertile
and unsuspected cause of foul water, and, in many cases, of illness; it being often
untrapped, and thus serving as a ventilator to the drains, &c., giving exit to
noxious gases, which are absorbed more or less by the water. Underground
cisterns are not to be employed without the permission of the company (Reg. 16),
and it is judiciously enacted that no wooden receptacle without a proper metallic
lining, shall be hereafter brought into use for the storage of water (Reg. 17.) No
boiler, urinal, or water-closet may be served, henceforth, direct from any pipe,
but through the intervention only, of a cistern or service box (Reg. 20). A group
of houses, in a court for example, may be supplied, by a stand-pipe, the draw-tap
to be of the 'waste preventer' kind (Reg. 19); and waste preventing apparatus is
to be applied, in future, to water-closets and urinal cisterns, so as to limit the
discharge of water to fixed quantities at each flush (Reg. 21). No alteration can
be made in any fittings without two days' previous notice in writing to the company
(Reg. 27); and every act in contravention of the regulations renders the offender
liable to a penalty not exceeding £5 (Reg. 31). No sample fittings have been
deposited, and therefore it is but too probable that differences of opinion will arise,
between consumers and the companies, as to what are 'prescribed fittings,' which,
as a last resort, will have to be decided by magistrates, who may take different
views upon the subject. The regulations were made by the companies for the
constant supply of water for domestic purposes; it therefore excited no little
surprise when the commission announced that they intended them to apply to the
intermittent system also, their object being to pave the way for the constant supply,
by requiring that, when new houses are erected, or the fittings in the existing houses
are renewed, the new fittings shall be adapted for the constant supply, even
though the companies may not at the time be under an obligation to afford it.
"Having stated the effect of the principal regulations, it remains to ask, When
are we likely to get the constant supply? After a careful study of the Act, I fear
that the Metropolis, as a whole, will have to wait a very long time, unless the