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26
WATER-SUPPLY.
to the immense increase of water distribution which
must accompany any improvement in this respect
—and I am quite prepared, if necessary, to adduce
ample evidence on these subjects; if, again, it be
considered that the appreciation of water by the
multitude, who have so long suffered from lack of
it, will lead to a vast augmentation of its domestic
use, then, I apprehend, it cannot be doubted that
the subject of water-supply to the City is one that
requires now to be looked at, almost as though it
were to-day broached for the first time.
Those important conditions, which I just
enumerated as urgently requiring fulfilment, may
certainly be accomplished, so far as mechanical
construction is concerned, in either of two ways.
It would be possible, no doubt, in further compliance
with the principle of intermittent supply,
to furnish every tenement in the City with a
cistern of proper dimensions, and with its usual
appurtenances of ballcock, waste-pipe, &c.; but
this, I need hardly say, would be a process involving
a vast expenditure of money, and hardly to
be recommended on the mere ground of conformity
with what has hitherto been done in the matter.
It would be possible, on the other hand, to convert
the whole water-supply of the City into a system
of uninterrupted supply, and to construct all new
works in conformity with this system.
I beg to suggest that the choice between these
alternatives, is one of immense and very urgent