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may, without any such application, propose to the Metropolitan Authority
to give a constant supply in any district.
3. The Board of Trade may appoint persons to inquire into and report
as to the quality of the water.
4. By the 32nd section it is enacted, that if the provisions of the Act
as regards proper fittings are not complied with, the company may cut-off
the supply to that house in which the necessary fittings to prevent waste
have not been provided; but in every case of so cutting-off or ceasing to
supply, the company shall, within twenty-four hours thereafter, give to the
Local Board notice thereof.
The 33rd section enacts that the absence of proper water-fittings in
any inhabited house shall be a nuisance, within section 11 and sections 12
to 19 (inclusive) of the Nuisances' Removal Act, 1855; and that nuisance,
if in any case proved to exist, shall be presumed to be such as to render the
premises unfit for human habitation within section 13 of the said Act, unless
and until the contrary is shown to the satisfaction of the Justices acting under
that section.
Before, however, the company cut-off the supply of water to any
inhabited house which is not provided with proper fittings I may express a
hope that they will give notice of their intention to do so to the sanitary
officers of the Local Board, so that the owner of such house may have
timely warning given to him of the consequences which will follow from
his non-compliance with the company's regulations.
Under the provisions of the Metropolis Water Act 1852, before a
constant supply could be obtained, it was necessary to procure the signatures
of four-fifths of the owners or occupiers of the houses supplied by the
district main to a requisition addressed to the company. Owing to the
provisions of this clause it was seldom, if ever, acted on.
Small Pox.
The deaths from small-pox registered in this District for the Quarter
ending 30th September, 1871, have been 11. For the previous Quarter they
were 42; for the Quarter ending April 2nd, they were 83, and for that
ending December 30th, 1870, they were 50. To these numbers there must
be added the deaths of those patients belonging to this District who died in
the small-pox hospitals; the total number of which, for the last four quarters,
was 49, viz., 2 for the quarter ending December, 1870; 12 for the quarter
ending April, 1871; 24 for the quarter ending July; and 11 for the quarter
ending September. The total deaths from this disease, therefore, which
have occurred in this District during the last twelve months have been 23G,
andfor the whole of London 7496.