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27
WATER-SUPPLY.
importance to the sanitary welfare of the City; and
I would earnestly commend it to the best consideration
of your Honourable Court.
The system of a continued supply is now no
longer a novelty. In Philadelphia, in New York,
in Nottingham, in Preston, in Glasgow, in Newcastle,
in Bristol, and in various other places, this
system has been adopted; its practicability and its
advantages have been amply demonstrated. Five
years ago, when evidence on the subject was given
before the House of Commons, it appeared that in
the city and suburbs of Philadelphia 25,816 houses
were supplied at an average rate of five dollars
per house; that in Preston more than 5,000
houses were supplied continually at high-pressure,
and that the company was increasing its tenants
at the rate of 400 annually; that in Nottingham
about 8,000 houses, containing a population of
35,000 persons, were supplied in the same manner;
and in respect of many other towns, public experience
has been equally extensive and satisfactory.
About a month ago, the Sanitary Committee of the
last mentioned town published what I may call a
report of congratulation on their freedom from
cholera, which had visited the town with great
severity in 1832. They detail the measures by
which Nottingham has been rendered a healthy
town, and the first item in that enumeration stands
thus :—'An unlimited supply of wholesome filtered
water, forced, by day and night, at high pressure,