416 Report on the Supply of Water, 



We have not entered into the question of the effects resulting 

 from the mutual compact agreed upon by the several water com- 

 panies on the Middlesex side of the Thames, with regard to the 

 limitations of the districts they respectively supply, it having 

 been expressly stated to us by his Majesty's Principal Secretary of 

 State for the Home Department, at the time our commission was 

 issued, that the grievances imputed to this cause were not to form 

 any part of our present inquiry, inasmuch as they had been the 

 special subject of consideration by a Select Committee of the 

 House of Commons, appointed for that purpose in the year 1821, 

 and by whom a report relating to those matters has been made. 

 The opinion given by that Committee was, that in consequence 

 of the peculiar nature of the undertakings of companies for the 

 supply of water, where large capitals must necessarily be vested 

 in fixed machinery, and where, from the commodity furnished 

 being of no value but for consumption on the spot, the sellers 

 are confined to the market by the nature of the trade, the prin- 

 ciple of competition in its application to such companies requires 

 to be guarded by particular checks and limits, in order to render 

 it effectual without the" risk of destruction to the competing par- 

 ties, and thereby ultimately of a serious injury to the public. 

 The only remark we shall venture to make upon this subject is 

 one naturally suggested by the evidence which has come before 

 us in the course of our inquiries, namely, that if, on the one 

 hand, the preservation of the present water companies, from which 

 the public have undoubtedly derived immense benefits, would be 

 endangered by unlimited competition with new companies that 

 might be established for similar objects, it must, on the other 

 Jiand, be evident, when due regard is had to the consideration, 

 that the constant and abundant supply of pure water is an object 

 of vital and paramount importance to the inhabitants of this vast 

 jnetropolis ; that the dispensing of such a necessary of life ought 

 pot to be altogether left to the unlimited discretion of companies 

 possessing an exclusive monopoly of that commodity j and that 

 the interests of the public require, that while they continue to 

 enjoy that monopoly, their proceedings should be sul)jectetj to 

 some effective superintendence and controuL^^^^^^^j^^^ ^^^^. 



OMd^lU U'<>^.fJ^ p. M. ROGET, '■ (t:t^^^^ 



(vporr-") onvM William Thomas Brande^ (l. S.^^-g 

 Thomas Telfobd^'j It xs/^ 9ij^j«.>/i^ 



9, New Palace Yard, Westminster, ■■& lioiiaq / .fiirr^tl arit n 

 April 21, 1828*v(i ija'.cfuq ij^ntfit « "^o PAiB^m ^d i-^dieji 



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