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8
Although a great improvement has been effected in the water supply,
it is still far from being in a satisfactory condition. There are at the
present time 24 Courts in this district, which are supplied with water from
a stand-tap only, from which water flows daily, Sundays excepted, for a
period of about twenty minutes, and if the inhabitants are not at home
when the water is .turned on, they must either go without a supply or
obtain it from their neighbours. The names of the Courts so supplied are
Eose Court, Farthing Alley, Three Compasses Court, Vincent's Place,
Haye's Back Court, Providence Court, Grower's Place, Little Tongue Yard,
Green Dragon Yard, Caroline Place, Bell Place, Montague Court, Eele
Place, Castle Alley, Jacob's Court, Samuel Court, Boundary Court, Pope's
Head Court, Coburg Court, Yine Yard, Angel Alley, John's Place Chicksand
Street, New Court Dorset Street, and Wilke Court. In most of the
Courts, where there are butts or cisterns, the receptacles are not sufficiently
l&rge to hold what is required for the daily use of the inhabitants ; moreover,
when a butt is provided for each house, it is generally found that
it is without a cover or tap, and in a very dilapidated and dirty condition.
The only proper method of supplying water to the poor localities, is
to have it direct from the main, without the intervention of any receptacle,
so that the inhabitants can, at all times, procure good and wholesome water
for domestic use. All that is required to be done to effect this desirable
object, is for the landlords to make arrangements with the Water Companies
so that a pipe, having a small bore, might be connected with the main.
This pipe shoixld be provided with a well-made screw-tap. All the houses,
about 18 in number, in New Gourt, Fashion Street, are supplied with
water in the way as above indicated. The taps do not readily get out of
order, for, upon inquiry, i was told by a tenant that, during a period
of 9 years, it had been necessary to renew the tap only once. The constant
supply will not become general until there is an amendment of the
Metropolis Water Act (1852). The 15th clause of this Act provides, that
when four-fifths of owners or occupiers of the houses supplied by a main,
shall, by writing under their hands, have required the Campany to provide
a constant supply of water, then the Company shall be bound to provide a
supply in that manner, This clause is practically inoperative, in consequence
of the difficulty of obtaining the desire, in writing, of four-fifths of
the owners and occupiers of the houses. It should be made compulsory
upon the Companies to supply water on the high pressure system to every
locality that the Local Board shall require to be thus supplied. There is now
considerable difficulty of obtaining a proper supply of water to the poor
localities; and if landlords are contumacious, and refuse to lay on a proper
service for a due supply of water to their tenants, then, the only way of