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concerned. With regard to other objections taken to the
Bill, two years were allowed by the Bill for the service of
notice to treat and, if this period was considered insufficient
for the inquiry suggested by the County Council, it might
have been extended. The Companies would necessarily
afford opportunity for the inspection of their plant, &c., or
suffer the consequences of the only inference which the
Arbitrators would be likely to draw from a refusal. Indeed,
it was reported to the County Council on the 18th November,
1890, that three of the Companies had already given
permission for the Council's Engineer to inspect their works.
The financial proposals of the Bill were not shown to be
unsound in any respect, indeed, if the suggested Statutory
Committee had been created the water authority, the
finances would have been under the control of the London
County Council and subject to the rules and conditions of
their ordinary expenditure. To prevent inflation of the
price of the undertakings, certain instructions to the
Arbitrators were inserted in the Bill, and, if necessary for
the protection of the purchasers, others might have been
added. Hence the Bill either met, or could easily have been
made to meet, all reasonable requirements of the County
Council.
8. The Select Committee in their report recommend that the
London County Council, if constituted the water authority,
should be required to purchase the undertakings of the eight
Water Companies by agreement, or failing agreement, by
arbitration within a fixed period. Acquisition of these
undertakings within a fixed period was a cardinal principle
of the Bill, and the Executive Committee have therefore
little doubt that if the Corporation of the City of London
had cared to take up the Bill, subject to modifications which
the promoters would have felt no difficulty in accepting, or
if the London County Council had been willing to adopt the
suggestions thrown out by the Select Committee, the supply
of water to London would have been vested in a public
authority by an Act of the past session. As the matter,
stands, the Companies will probably claim, when the next
attempt at a settlement is made, a right to the unearned