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would beg to recommend that they be requested to test the spirit of the three companies
supplying this Parish, and ascertain the soundness and practicability of
the regulations, by requiring a constant supply in certain parts of the several
water districts. This should be done without delay, so as to afford time for an
amendment of the Act, or of the regulations, during the ensuing Session of Parliament,
should the one or the other prove necessary."
I have little or nothing to add to the views expressed
in the above report twenty years ago; it is satisfactory, however,
to find that many of my anticipations have been
realized. The Metropolitan Board of Works persisted to the
last in their objections to the regulations, and never once
made application for constant supply But the Metropolis is
largely indebted to the companies for their action in giving
constant supply in more or less extensive portions of their
several Districts, the Chelsea Company being, I believe,
the only one that has never given notice of its intention to
substitute a constant for an intermittent supply under the
provisions of the Act of 1871. It is to be assumed, as I
anticipated would be the case, that the companies have found
it to their advantage to give constant supply; which, however,
would not have become so general, probably, had they
insisted to the letter, upon compliance with the requirements
of the regulations, as respects size and weight of pipes, &c.
The most remarkable fact in connection with constant
supply, and one I did not anticipate, is the extraordinary
extent to which it has been given in the poorer parts of
London, in the district of the East London Waterworks
Company. In May, 1892, this company was giving constant
supply to 98 per cent. of the houses in its district. The Grand
Junction Company at the same date was giving constant supply
to 70 per cent.; the West Middlesex Company to 46 per cent.;
the Chelsea Company to 30 per cent. Portions of Kensington
are within the districts of these three companies; but I do not
know the number of houses they supply in the parish, nor the
number on constant service. Considerable advance is made