View report page

82
should be dealt with piecemeal in a Private Bill. The Yestry
therefore communicated with the Home Secretary, the Local
Government Board, and the Board of Trade, suggesting that the
precedent set by the Government with respect to the Electric
Lighting Bills in 1882 should be followed in the present instance,
and that the Bill should be referred to a Select Committee, with a
view to the framing of a Public Bill of general application. The
Vestry at the same time submitted a number of amendments which
they considered should be embodied in the Bill, if the Government
did not see their way to take up the whole subject, and
invited other Local Authorities throughout the Metropolis to cooperate
in the endeavour to obtain satisfactory legislation with
regard to telegraph and other wires laid or suspended in streets.
The Government have intimated their intention of opposing the
Bill, but have not yet expressed any decision upon the suggestion
that they should introduce a General Public Bill on the subject.
The matter is one of growing importance, and the Yestry trust
that either they, or some other constituted authority, will have
power to control the laying and suspension of wires in streets,,
before any appalling loss of life, through the falling of wires, calls
public attention to the crying need of legislation. The action
taken by the Yestry on the general question of overhead wires is
noticed on page 83.
The object of the Metropolis Water Bill, which was promoted
by the Corporation of the City of London, was to bring the eight
Water Companies supplying the Metropolis under control in the
following respects:—(1) To compel the Water Companies to
supply water by meter to any consumer requiring the same, the
meter not to come into operation until 6,000 gallons have been
supplied to the premises during the quarter; (2) to charge consumers
not desiring a meter upon the rateable value of the
premises; (3) to apply the Waterworks Clauses Act, 1847, to all
the Water Companies, so that the dividend shall be limited to 10
per cent., and payments on account of back dividends to six years;
(4) to require Companies to bring rents of property into their