DEFINITIONS H 



of water drawn within a certain time interval. The periods used 

 are the day, the month, the quarter, the half year, and the year. 



It is convenient to have the periods for which meter rates are 

 given correspond to the periods for which collections are made, 

 but this is not necessary and is by no means always the case in 

 existing schedules. 



In a great majority of water-works systems domestic water 

 rates are collected quarterly. The amounts are not large enough 

 to make the trouble of monthly collections necessary or desir- 

 able. 



The work of meter reading, bookkeeping and collecting may 

 be distributed uniformly throughout the year, with quarterly 

 collections, by dividing the area that is supplied into districts, 

 for each of which the quarter terminates on a different day, and 

 by making these districts sufficiently numerous the work will 

 be well distributed. 



The meters of those takers who use large quantities of water 

 are always read monthly and monthly collections are customary. 

 Some water-works systems on the Pacific coast and elsewhere 

 collect from all customers monthly. 



In that which follows, the year and the day will be used. 

 The year is more convenient as a basis where the figures relate 

 to rates and annual payments and are used in making up an 

 annual budget. The day has the advantage of giving a clearer 

 conception of the amount of water that is drawn by a service. 

 Where rates are defined in terms of other lengths of time, they will 

 always be converted into one of these units in that which follows. 



Meter rates in use at the present time are extremely varied 

 in their methods of expression, as will be shown by a number of 

 typical examples reproduced in Chapter IV. These exampjes, 

 however, by no means exhaust the possibilities of variation, 

 and the list could be indefinitely extended. 



An adequate classification of all these various meter rates 

 would be difficult. At the present time only a rough general 

 classification will be attempted. 



Minimum Rate. A minimum rate is an amount that is 

 collected in any event even though the price of the quantity of 



