AVERAGE OF RATES IN USE 23 



the schedule for each quantity. This course is followed and the annual 

 rates that follow are thus reduced by an amount equal to 10 per cent, 

 of the work's contribution to the cost of each service. Obviously in apply- 

 ing any rates deducted from these figures to a particular case, it will be neces- 

 sary to add one-tenth of the corresponding contribution to the works to 

 the cost of services in that plant. 



The Committee believes that meter rates, where most of the services are 

 metered, may be more safely taken as an indication of good practice than 

 rates in those cities where the meter system has been used only to a lim- 

 ited extent. In them, most of the revenue is derived from meter rates. 

 There have usually been discussions of the equity of the meter rates as 

 between different classes of takers, and it may be assumed that in most 

 cases the rates have been reduced during a term of years to fairly satis- 

 factory shape. On the other hand, where meters are used only to a lim- 

 ited extent, it frequently happens that schedules of rates are in force that 

 are not well adapted to the service, and their inconsistencies have not been 

 removed because of the limited use that has been made of them. With 

 this in mind, fifty representative reports were selected for study. In 

 each of these more than 50 per cent of the services were metered; most 

 but not all of the selected works were in New England. 



It would be unfair to speak of the results so obtained as the aveiage 

 meter rates for New England conditions, or of any conditions, because 

 the rates in different works differ considerably in form and amount, and 

 another selection of fifty cities equally representative would give some- 

 what diffeient results. The results are nevertheless believed to be in a 

 general way representative of present practice. 



An interesting comparison may be made with a compilation of meter 

 rates by George W. Biggs, Jr., chief engineer of the American Water Works 

 & Guarantee Company. This compilation shows the amounts that would 

 be paid for various annual quantities of water in 146 works, about half of 

 them municipally owned works, the others being water companies. In 

 Mr. Biggs's figures, no deduction is made on account of the contribution 

 of the works toward the cost of the service and meter. Obviously an 

 allowance must be made for this item to make the results comparable 

 with those obtained from the fifty rates investigated by your Committee. 

 In the absence of information as to what the average contribution has 

 been, it is assumed that it has been $12.50 per service, this being about 

 one-half of the normal total cost per service, and a deduction of 10 per 

 cent of this, or $1.25 per annum, has been made from the figures com- 

 piled by Mr. Biggs. This correction is sufficiently close for practical 

 purposes, and any error in it will not have an important influence on that 

 which follows. As Mr. B'iggs's quantites were not always the same as 

 tho.se for which the Committee's calculations have been made, inter- 

 polations have been made which are sufficiently accurate. 



