i88o.] 
79 
The London Water-Supply . 
them defedlive in every particular. In the first place, the 
quantity of water available under present arrangements is 
not largely in excess of the probable future demand. The 
daily consumption has grown from 95 million gallons daily 
in 1869 to 146 million gallons during the summer ot 1878. 
As Mr. Bateman remarks, “ there is no adequate source 
within the means of any of the existing companies to wmch 
they can resort ” for the needful increase of the available 
supply. “ They will hardly be permitted to increase the 
draught from the Thames, and any supplies which could 
still be obtained from the chalk basin on which London lies 
are altogether insufficient to meet future demands.” 
That the London water-supply is not continuous, but in- 
termittent, we all know, many of us to our cost. It is not, 
however, sufficiently known that the city of Manchester, 
since it adopted a continuous water-supply at high pressure, 
has not only been able to dispense with fire-engines, but to 
make a reduction in the property destroyed by fire 01 
14*3 per cent.* 
As to the quality of the London water-supply, the fafts 
furnished by Prof. Frankland and published by the Registrar- 
General ought to be sufficient. Two companies indeed 
furnish a water tolerably free from organic impurities, but 
in return most unpleasantly hard and grossly unfit foi 
washing and cooking. 
It may be asked why London has been so long content 
with the old order of things, and has patiently borne the 
heavy yoke of the companies ? The answer must be sought 
for in its want of municipal unity. The desultory adtion of 
individual “ parishes ” was utterly unable to cope with the 
gigantic monopolies which have to be encountered. As far 
back as 1869 the Duke of Richmond’s Commission reported 
“ that the general control of the water-supply should be 
entrusted to a responsible public body.” But no such body 
has hitherto been constituted. 
As to the possible sources of a better and more abundant 
water-supply there is nothing at all adequate to be found in 
the south-east of England. The water of the Bagshot 
Sands is unsurpassed in quality, but its quantity is totally 
insignificant. The scheme propounded by the Metropolitan 
Board of Works, and introduced into Parliament in 1878, 
would have merely furnished 16 million gallons daily, say 
* During the past year there were 60 cases of fire in the metropolis in which, 
says Captain Shaw, “ the water arrangements were unsatisfactory. In the 
majority of cases the “ unsatisfactory arrangements ” consisted in the absence 
or late arrival of the turncock. 
