Water- Rating. 425 



some meters of the inferential type are apt to record low when they 

 get old, and sometimes not to record at all when the supply is drawn 

 very slowly. Unscrupulous customers, knowing this, will arrange 

 to draw water continuously at a slow rate, and thus get with a low 

 meter record a quantity which, if drawn through the meter in a short 

 time at a rapid rate, would be recorded considerably higher. It does 

 not do to condemn a system because it fails in a particular case 

 where bad materials are used, but it must be borne in mind that 

 there are meters on the market which are not satisfactory under 

 all conditions, and that the customer who thinks his monthly bill 

 too high, can induce the meter to record more to his liking. On 

 that account, only positive meters will be considered. 



When the property supplied is above a certain value, the occupier 

 or consumer will probably pay. The tenant of such property, for 

 the sake of keeping the monthly bill down, is not likely to restrict 

 himself in the quantity of water used in the house, but he will see 

 that there is no waste, and he will probably not give his garden 

 the allowance it would have through an unmetered pipe. 



In property of low value the owner will pay. In this case 

 the occupier has no interest in saving, and has no reason for restrict- 

 ing himself. In poor class property this is possibly fortunate, as 

 there is otherwise a danger of the quantity used being restricted 

 beyond the limits of sanitary requirements. The meter thus fails 

 to reduce the consumption in the case of tenants occupying property 

 of low value. 



Meters in Continental Towns. 



In Berlin, Naples, Vienna, and other Continental towns, the 

 success of the meter system is greatly due to the habits of the 

 people, who are accustomed to living in flats. Each building 

 contains several distinct dwellings, and 67 inhabitants per house was 

 the average in Berlin in 1890. 



In Berlin the Municipality sold the water wholesale to the land- 

 lords, who paid for it by the quantity and distributed it to the 

 various tenants, who were the consumers, and paid for it indirectly 

 in rent. Had the distinct dwellings of the 67 inhabitants in each 

 block of buildings been separate, each with its own meter, there 

 would have been probably at least 10 dwellings and 10 meters, and 

 the meter charge of the town would have been increased tenfold, 

 and no further saving in the water would have been effected. As 

 it was, the meter rental was 2.37 per cent, of the revenue for water, 

 hence it would have Seen 23.7 per cent., which appears excessive. 

 It may be noted that in the year 1903-04 the Johannesburg Water 

 Works Company's meter rental amounted to 6.25 of the water 

 revenue, and the meter expenditure amounted to 12 per cent, of the 

 other maintenance and management expenses. The rent charged by 

 that Company (2/6 per mensem) does not appear to have been too 

 high. 



