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47
for human habitation. The penalties, therefore, for
the waste, misuse, or fouling of water are sharp and
decisive; and the companies have power to send
their officers at all reasonable times into any house
or premises for the purpose of examining the pipes,
cocks, cisterns, fittings, and other apparatus, and
ascertaining whether they are in accordance with
the Regulations. All this is essentially necessary to
guard against the terrible consequences of want of
water from undue waste; and it is the more necessary
in London from the circumstance that the
fittings and apparatus of almost every house are so
defective and imperfect that the waste of water
through them is enormous. This is abundantly
evident in the fact that with the present intermittant
supply of only for about twenty minutes in the day,
the average quantity of water delivered to the public
amounts to 32.5 gallons per head of the population,
or 218 gallons per house; and if with such a condition
of things the constant service were adopted,
the waste would be beyond the capabilities of the
companies, even if the entire volume of the Thames
were at their disposal. With proper care and supervision,
however, the daily consumption of water in
this Metropolis need not exceed 20 gallons per head
of the population, for that is the amount supplied in
those cities and towns of England where the
constant service is properly managed.