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41
floor—that is, a tap over a sink—the one being
quite an essential to the other. They should be on
the landing or elsewhere at hand. Nothing is
more unreasonable than for respectable persons, or
families, who are willing to pay a fair rent for the
place they live in, that they should have to fetch
up from below every drop of water required for
personal and household purposes, and then have to
carry down the slops.
Many other things have yet to be considered
in relation to water supply, partly of an engineering
character, and partly from a sanitary point of
view, but they scarcely belong to my province to
discuss at greater length than mere enumeration—
a. plans for preventing waste; b. legal and public
inspection for the distribution, or approval of
fittings; c. street watering by hose and jet; d. private
hydrants for fires; and e. for best way of
employing the charged street main for the public fire
brigade. There are, also, other matters that ought
not to be forgotten in future legislation bearing upon
this question, viz.: a. Ought not the Public Water
Service of towns to be under the management of
a Representative Public Board who would study
the interests of rate-payers? rather than in the
hands of private companies, who look to the highest
dividend they can make for themselves. b. Should
not a water company, being virtually a monopoly,
be held responsible for damages arising out of
neglect, either of not filtering properly, or for distributing
foul water, or for effects arising from
temporary absence or deficiency of supply where