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221
yearly in extending the constant supply in London, as a whole,
and at the end of May, 1892, 522,298 houses out of a total of
784,643 (= 67 per cent.) were on constant service. I hope
that your Vestry's application to the County Council may
before very long have the effect of providing for a constant
supply in all parts of this Parish.
In a contrast of the intermittent and constant service
systems, the Water Examiner observed, in his report for 1889,
that "the intermittent charging of the service pipes favours
corrosion, which, in turn, causes turbidity; while the shutting
off of the water from the service mains, and their
depletion by the gravitation of the water into basement
cisterns, or by leakage, tends to creates a vacuum into which
may be drawn either foul air or foul water. These evils
are avoided by the constant service; but this necessitates
the provision of well-constructed house-fittings .
in order to avoid the enormous waste from leakage which
would otherwise ensue Apprehension of the
sometimes considerable cost of the alterations required to
adapt existing houses to the requirements of constant
service, due to the generally inferior condition of the fittings,
has in some degree checked the extension of the system;
but it is generally admitted that when this difficulty has
been overcome the result has been found to be,
on the whole, satisfactory alike to the consumers and to the
Water Companies. Constant supply seems to conduce, on
the whole, to economy in the use of water. The control of
the supply, however, is virtually surrendered to the consumers,
but when good house fittings are insisted on and
maintained, the privilege is not, as a rule, abused."
Cutting-off Powers.—Section 74 of the Waterworks
Clauses Act, 1847,* gives power to Companies to cut off the
The provisions of this Act were summarised in my Report for 1882 (page
118), as well as some of the principal provisions of the Metropolis Water Acts,
1852 and 1871.