PUBLIC WATER SUPPLIES — HISTORICAL. 27 



exhibition which brought thousands of people to the city to drink 

 the polluted water that had already claimed hundreds of victims. 

 Montreal admits that conditions are such in her case that a 

 similar outbreak any day would be of no great surprise, and even 

 Fredericton can testify that she has learned the difference between 

 good and bad water. 



THE CHOICE OF A SYSTEM. 



The first inspiration for a public supply of water usually follows 

 some more or less severe loss by fire. The cry is then raised, 

 "We must have water to protect us from fire, and for that pur- 

 pose the water from the river will be good enough. We have 

 wells and they will do for many years for drinking purposes, but 

 for extinguishing fires the bucket brigade is out of date." Thus 

 the system is installed and water that is probably far from pure 

 is pumped through the mains. Again someone calls attention to 

 the fact that the sewage system is out of date and that the 

 leaching ce^s-pools are beginning to exact their annual toll. Now 

 comes the digging of sewers and the piping of the river water 

 into the houses, the sewage being run into the river to look after 

 itself. 



After the public have been put to a considcable expense it is 

 finally discovered that the water in the river for drinking pur- 

 poses is far from good, as the death rate easily shows. Had the 

 original system been designed with a little more care for the 

 future, the outlay, which is now facing the town, or a great deal 

 of it, could have been avoided. The next move is to either install 

 an expensive filtration plant, in the hope of straining out other 

 people's sewage, or an expensive trip up country in the searcli 

 for spring water. Usually at this stage of the proceedings there 

 is considerable delay, perhaps years, and the average man becomes 

 sick of discussing the old subject. But in some respects the delay 

 is not always such a bad thing as might at first be considered. In 

 all matters involving the expenditure of public money it is only 

 right that there should be a long delay. It gives people a chance 

 to think it over and no censure for preciijitate action can then be 

 brought against the authorities. 



That it pays, when possible, to wait and think things over 

 thoroughly, even though it involves years and the subject becomes 



