3 o6 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



As regards the question of water supply I have long 

 held the view that a National Water Board should 

 be appointed for the whole of the United Kingdom. 

 This view is confirmed by the recent determination of 

 the Government to refer the question of the National 

 Water Supply to the Royal Commission on Sewage 

 Disposal now sitting, and this Commission has already 

 suggested the appointment of a central authority. 



At the present moment this question is chaotic. It 

 is now a case of the early bird. Manchester is early 

 afield, and possesses itself of Thirlmere. Other great 

 cities, in like manner Birmingham and Liverpool, for 

 example monopolise by force majeure other water- 

 bearing districts, and this is done without the slightest 

 consideration of the wants and rights of other people, 

 who have an equally just claim but a less powerful 

 hand. The claim of London is, of course, more powerful 

 than in any provincial city ; but hitherto, though the 

 discussion has been long and, I almost might say, angry, 

 no steps have been taken to secure a pure water supply 

 from a distance ; thus the metropolis is still dependent 

 upon sources which cannot be considered, from a 

 hygienic point of view, as altogether satisfactory. 



In my opinion, London, either through the newly 

 constituted Metropolitan Water Board or otherwise, 

 ought to possess itself of a tract of high-lying country 

 in Wales, the situation of which has long been pointed 

 out, and which may in the future serve as a gathering 

 ground for the metropolitan water supply, when the 

 Thames and the Lea and the New River and the chalk 

 springs are found wanting as regards either quality or 

 quantity. 



As everyone knows the first great International 

 Exhibition in 1851, unlike any of those that followed, 



