View report page

82
tory powers do not enable you to deal with, that
this much desired change will not bo effected. I am,
however, informed by Mr. Liddle, the medical officer
of health of Whitechapel, that there are 92 of these
Stand-pipes with waste-water-preventers in his district,
affording a constant supply of water to upwards
of 7,000 poor people, and that numerous houses
occupied by the poor of the district have for years
past boon furnished with a small pipe in connection
with the mam which delivers a constant supply to
the house tap—to the groat comfort of the tenants,
and without loss of water to the Company.
But although the supply of water by constant
service to the poor is admitted on all hands to bo a
pressing necessity, there are grave doubts on the
subject of its general applicability to all classes of
the metropolis; for it would involve such a complete
change in the present arrangement of fittings, pipeago,
and all other appliances, as to bo both difficult
and costly. Besides which, it would require a system
of supervision and interference which would hardly
at first be tolerated. That the public are not in want
of this change is manifest from the circumstance that
they do not ask for it, and that practically they consider
the supply already constant. By the fifteenth
section of the Metropolis Water Act of 1852, the
water companies are bound to provide a constant
service, reaching to the top storey of the houses,