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into the necessity and source of a supplementary supply
(question 5,641). Counsel for the County Council went so far
as to suggest, in his closing speech, that the proposed Royal
Commission should allocate the various gathering grounds
in England among the different centres of population.
6. The City tendered no evidence, and the Companies were not
called upon to give any. The case for the Water Companies
has therefore not yet been heard, and the testimony given
on behalf of the London County Council was so ambiguous
and conflicting as not to advance a settlement of the
question to the extent that was hoped.
7. The observations of the Select Committee from time to time
induced the promoters of the Bill to anticipate a satisfactory
result. Thus the Select Committee intimated very early in
the proceedings that they would adopt the first paragraph
of the report of Sir William Harcourt's Committee in 1880,
as their starting point, viz., that it is desirable to establish a
single public representative water authority for the
Metropolis. Again, the Committee stated on the Bill promoted
by the City, "that no Bill can be satisfactory, dealing
with t-he questions referred to the Committee, which merely
constitutes a public authority to promote Bills in Parliament."
Again, Counsel for the Bill was told not to argue
the question of competing supplies, "the difficulties of an
independent supply are too obvious." And, as late as the
10th June, the Chairman intimated that the Committee
leaned to the creation of a Statutory Committee, to be
appointed jointly by the City Corporation and the County
Council, as the water authority, subject to all questions of
principle being reserved for settlement by the County
Council alone. This proposal was quite in harmony with
the Bill, and was accepted by the promoters, although they
are still of opinion that the consumers in the districts outside
the County of London, who are rapidly increasing in
number, should be directly represented on the Water
Authority. For reasons which are not quite apparent
neither the City nor the County Council, however, would
take up the Bill even when altered to meet their own
suggestions so far as the constitution of the authority was