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68
WATER SUPPLY.
Some important questions have been raised during the year
affecting the relative positions of the Water Companies and
the consumers.
A Bill (The Waterworks Clauses Act [1847] Amendment
Bill) promoted by Mr. W. M. Torrens,M.P., providing that the
rateable value of premises shall betaken as the annual value,
in all cases, as the basis of charge for a domestic supply has
become law, but this Act will probably not benefit the residents
in a highly-rented parish like St. James's to the
slightest extent, indeed, it has, in some instances, led to an
increase in the annual charge. Should, however, the question
of purchasing the undertakings of the Metropolitan
Water Companies again come to the front, the limitation of
the power of the Companies in the matter of assessment
must necessarily prevent any demand on the part of the
Companies for a hypothetical increase represented by an
undetermined basis of annual value.
A far more important measure, in the judgment of the
Vestry, was introduced into the House of Lords, but failed to
pass. This was a Bill for regulating the powers of the
Water Companies, and was introduced by Lord Carnperdown.
Amongst other provisions the Bill proposed
to considerably restrict the power of Water Companies
to discontinue a supply. This question is exceedingly
important from a sanitary point of view, for it is
evident that absence of water in a crowded tenement house
in sultry weather, might lead to an outbreak of epidemic
disease, extending far beyond the source of origin. A large,
and it is believed rapidly increasing, number of houses in St.
James's are wholly let out in lodgings, the landlord residing
away. In such cases, the rates, including water rates, are
payable by the landlord, and instances have arisen more than
once, where through no fault of the tenants, the water supply
has been discontinued in consequence of the neglect of the