The London water supply / by Arthur Shadwell.

  • Shadwell, Arthur, 1854-1936.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The London water supply / by Arthur Shadwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    l nothing but ‘ swelling their dividends,’ which are enormous; that by some underhand pressure they have obtained from Parliament special Acts which, on the one hand, protect them from penalties when they fail to do their duty, as they constantly do, and, on the other, give them the most tyrannous rights over the consumers ; that municipal water authorities possess no such protection and no such powers. As a corollary, we are given to understand that if only we get rid of the companies and instal a municipal authority, we shall be supplied for next to nothing with any quantity of water of the most admirable quality, provided from some ‘ pure and inexhaustible ’ source ; that we shall never be troubled about fittings or waste; that the water will never be cut off for non-payment of rates, if indeed we pay any rates at all; and that frozen pipes, being all the fault of the companies and unknown under municipal rule, will be a misery of the past. This, I submit, is no exaggerated statement of the wrongs of Londoners and the way to right them, as popularly expounded in recent years. How much truth there is in it all will be made clear in the succeeding chapters, which will deal with the actual facts. For the present it is enough that these things are said and widely accepted. No doubt sensible men of affairs do not take everything quite literally, and the virtues of municipal rule have hitherto failed to inspire much general enthusiasm; but