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vicinity of their houses, that the health and moral condition of the people have been raised,
and I do not hesitate to express a decided opinion, that if all the poor localities were supplied
with an adequate quantity of water for washing and for other domestic uses, there would be
more personal cleanliness, and a greater feeling of self respect among the people, than now
prevails. Many of the poor have been so long accustomed to have a very scanty supply of
water, that they make no complaint of it. This is a melancholy feature in the social economy
of the poorer classes, who, from not having felt the comfort of cleanliness in their persons
and houses, are insensible of the advantages arising from having a constant supply of water.
This insensibility is manifested in the dirty condition of their houses and clothes, and it
clearly shows that where a good supply of water is most needed, the want of such supply is
least felt; and it is amongst this class that if the question be asked, if they have plenty of
TVater, although they have only such a supply as is afforded by the flow from a stand tap once
a day* for the short period varying from ten minutes to half-an-hour, that they will answer
"Oh yes, plenty." The desire among the poorer classes for an abundant supply of water can
only be stimulated by the spread of education among them, and by their having more frequent
intercourse with persons in a superior position to themselves.
The plans now in general use for supplying water to the inhabitants of the poorer
localities are for the most part very objectionable. In some places, the water flows from a
single stand-tap for a limited period. In. others, the water is received and stored in butts. In
some few instances, slate cisterns are provided; while in two or th ree courts only, water is
constantly at hand, there being a pipe from the main. This pipe, which is constantly charged
with water, is furnished with a kind of valve, which being pressed, the water flows so long as
the pressure is continued. This last-mentioned plan of supplying water is the best for the
purpose, and the one which ought to be generally adopted : for, by this contrivance a sufficient
quantity of water is provided for each inhabitant, and very little runs to waste. The next
best plan for providing water for the poor is by tneans of a slate tank or cistern, the tap in
which must be so secured as to prevent its being stolen, and the ball tap so placed as to be
rendered difficult of access, so that any person attempting to steal it might be readily detected.
The slate tank or cistern, being provided with a suitable cover, may be fixed in substantial
brickwork and placed, if there be room, in the centre of the court, or if the court be narrow
so as not to admit of a tank being erected in it, then the water receptacle may be placed under
the pavement of the court, so that by means of a pump being fixed in the tank the inhabitants
may have a constant supply of water. As regards the use of butts for storing water, I may
state that they are highly objectionable. In the first place they are seldom properly prepared
for the purpose; some of them having been formerly used as wine casks or as rum puncheons,
and are seldom, if ever, lined with pitch, a dressing of which material ought to be applied
every year to any wooden vessel used for the purpose of holding water for domestic use. A
proper cover to these butts is fpund to be the exception and not the rule, and from the want
of this cover the water soon acquires a layer of soot and dust, the sight of which is so
offensive that few persons would be induced to drink it. Butts or cisterns, unless effectually
* Formerly the Water Companies supplied water to the inhabitants only three days in the week. It is
now supplied every day in the week, with the exception of Sunday. As water is equally necessary on Sundays as
on other days, the Companies ought to distribute it daily.