1!)11] on Water Supply. 115 



legislation. When a matter begins to stir the minds of the public, 

 the politicians invariably think that postponement is the best policy, 

 and, acting upon this principle, they appoint a Royal Commission, a 

 Departmental Committee, or a Joint Select Committee of the two 

 Houses, and after that the matter is never heard of again. There 

 are more questions buried in blue books than bodies in the catacombs. 

 The Committee or Commission thinks it is furthering the great purpose 

 of reform, and it makes a Report, and the sound dies away and silence 

 resumes her disturbed possession. As you will understand, the ques- 

 tion of water supply was just one which would be interred with the 

 bones of a Royal Commission. The matter has been in the minds of 

 restive people — ^who really are like the angels of the Pool of Bethesda, 

 and stir the waters of healing — for many years. There was a Royal 

 Commission on water supply in 1869, which saw that there were 

 large questions involved. There was also a somewhat similar recom- 

 mendation in the Report of the Select Committee on the Public 

 Health Act (1875) Amendment Act in 1S78. Nothing has resulted 

 from these recommendations, but the introduction of some dead letter 

 clauses into the Manchester, the Liverpool, the Birmingham, and the 

 Birkenhead Acts. But the recommendation was, in effect, a recogni- 

 tion of the necessity of considering the needs of districts, and a more 

 comprehensive treatment of the whole subject. 



The Sewage Commission's Third Report contains a statement of 

 the Commissioners that " in our opinion a properly equipped authority 

 is essential, and we unhesitatingly recommend the creation of such an 

 authority." That recommendation was made in 1903 (Report, para. 

 44), and I need scarcely say nothing has come of it. There was 

 recently introduced into Parliament a somewhat crude measure called 

 " The Water Supplies Protection Bill," which sought to aker the law 

 of underground waters to endow landowners with rights to waters 

 which were not in defined streams which they do not at present 

 possess, and a few other trifles of legislation. The Bill was referred 

 to a Joint Select Committee, and the inquiry was useful and instruc- 

 tive. The Report for the most part gave the go-by to the fads of 

 the measure, but the Committee took an exceedingly sensible view in 

 relation to the great question of National Water Supply. They re- 

 ported on the desirability of conserving in all reasonable ways the 

 water supply of the country. They recommended " the creation of 

 an organisation empowered to inquire into the whole question of sur- 

 face and underground water supplies from a comprehensive stand- 

 point, to supervise the future allocation of supplies, and to serve as 

 an authoritative adviser of Parliament in the consideration of par- 

 ticular schemes." This was such a reasonable proposal that I have 

 no hesitation in predicting for it the oblivion such proposals mostly 

 achieve. 



But this Committee, not deterred by the wrecks of other reports 

 which lie along the whole shore of legislation, went on to say that 



I 2 



