On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
utterly nugatory ) than that provided by the Select Committee , and described above . " The four next amendments , proposed for insertion in clause 15 of the bill , tend to secure the introduction of the constant supply , without the delay , and without several of the exemptions , conceded to the companies by the Select Committee . " "These , and some other amendments referring to points of detail , arc obviously well meant , and may prove useful so far as they go ; but they utterly ignore the main improvements in our water supply , set forth as attainable in paragraphs 1 to 5 of the following Memorandum ; and . they leave wholly unremedicd the principal evils of the Government bill , pointed out in paragraph 9 .
"As for the ten new clauses by which Lord J . Manners proposes that the present and all future water companies shall be bound and compellablc to extend their pipes throughout the entire districts which they are empowered by their several Acts to supply , the effect of such a regulation , if enforced , would be to encumber the greater part of London with double and triple sets of pipes , conveying-, at an enormously increased outlay of capital , the water which one set would suffice to deliver . These clauses arc apparently intended to renew competition between the companies , now virtually leagued against the public . But they would wholly fail of any such effect . Friendly companies , making comfortable profits , cannot easily be forced their willLambethindeed
to fight one another against . , , is already piped in duplicate by two rival companies ( the Lambeth and the Southwark-aiid-Vauxhall ) , which , nevertheless , forbear to compete against each other , and have an understanding for the maintenance of their excessive rates . If any argument were necessary to show the futility of an attempt to reduce rates , by enforcing the needless cxpc 7 iditure of another million sterling ( at least ) on duplicate and triplicate pipes , it might be found in the following account ( taken from the Times journal ) of the companies' competition with rival pipes in 1810-17 , and of the disastrous consequences of the struggle , not only to the companies themselves , but ultimately also to the public : —
"' In 1810 , a water mania , like our recent railway mania , suddenly broke out ; and the principle of competition , to which the Legislature had all along looked for the protection of the public , was put upon its trial . Two powerful companies , which had been several years occupied in obtaining their Acts and setting up their machinery , now took the field;—one , the West Middlesex , attackingthe old monopolists on their western flank ; the other , the East London , invading their territory from the opposite quarter . At the same time a band of dashing Manchester speculators started the Grand Junction Company with a naming prospectus , and boldly flung their pipes into the very thick of the tangled network which now spread in every direction beneath the pavement of the hotly-contested streets .
" ' These Grand Junction men quite astonished the town by the magnificence of their promises . ' Copious streams ' of water derived , by the medium of the Grand Junction Canal , from the ltivers Colne and Brent —• ' always pure and fresh , because always coining in '— ' high service , free of extra charge '—above nil , ' nnintermittcnt supply , so that customers may do without cisterns ;' - —such were a few of the seductive allurements held out by these interlopers to tempt deserters from the enemy ' s camp . " ' The "West Middlesex Company , in its opening circulars , also promised ' unlimited supplies' to the very ' housetops , ' of water ' clear and bright from the gravelly bottom of the Thames , thirteen miles above London IJridgo . ' The
East London was not behiml-harid with the trumpet ; and its ' skilful' directors , by paying dividends in rapid succession out of capital , raised their 100 / . shams to the enormous premium of I ' . WL before they lmd well got their machinery into play . Meanwhile Ok ; South London ( or Vnuxhall ) Company was started ( in ] 80 f >) on the other side of tho river , with a view to wrest from il ., 4 old rulers the watery dominion of the . south . The war was not , however , carried on in very royal sort ; for , tin the travelling mountebank drives . six-in-hand through u country town to entice the gaping provincials to his boofli , no those water jugglers went , round the streets of London , throwing up rival ji f . td ' eau from their mains to prove tin ; alleged superiority of their engines , and to captivate the fancy of hesitating
cus-. "' The New River Company , thus put upon its mettle , boldly took ii ]) the gauntlet . It erected new forcing engines , changed its remaining wooden pipes for iron , more than doubled its consumption of coals , reduced its charges , augmented its . supplies , issued a , contemptuous rejoinder to its adversaries , Jind , appealing as an ' old servant' to the public for support ,, engaged in n war of extermination . " ' For Hoveii yours the battle raged incessantly . The combatants sought ( anil openly avowed it ) not , their own profit , but their rivals' ruin . Tenants wore taken on almost , any terms . Plumbers were bribed to tout , like omnibus cuds , for custom . Such wn . s the rage for mere numerical coii (| iiesl , that a , line of pipes would bo ol'len driven down a long street to nerve one new customer » t . the end . Arrears remained uneollectod , lest offence should
ho given and influence impaired . Capricious tenants amused themselves by changing from one main l . o another , as they might , tnsto this or thiif tup of beer . Th <> more credulous citizens , relying on the good faith of the ' public servants' ( as those once powerful water-lords now humbly called themselves ) , were simpletons enough , on I ho si rongl h of their promises , io abandon their wells , t . o sell oil their force-pumps , iiikI Io erect water-closets or bat . hu in the upper stories of their houses . In many streets Micro wore threu liner , of water-pipes laid down , involving trip le leakage , triple interest , on cupifal , triple administrative charges , triple pumping and storage costs , and a tri p le army of turncockh—tho whole affording n loss clfcclivo supply Mian would have resulted from u single well-ordered service . In this desperate struggle vtini . sums of money wero sunk . Tho r
Untitled Article
a ruinous loss ; and such as kept up a show of prosperity were in fact , like the East London Company , paying dividends out of capital . The New River Company s dividends went down from 500 ? . to 23 ? . per share per annum . In the border-line districts , where the fiercest conflicts took place , the inhabitants sided with one or other of the contending parties . Some noted with delight the humbled tone of the old arbitrary monopolists , and heartily backed the invaders . Some quiet old stagers stuck to the ancient companies , and to the faces of familiar turncocks , ihese paid ; but many shrewd fellows put off the obsequious collectors , and contrived to live water-rate free . Ihus the honest , as usual , paid for the knaves ; and tho ultimate burden of all these squandered resources fell ( also as usual , ) on society at large . it to
" ' Such a state of things could not last ; and came a conclusion which experience , had it been invoked , might have led Parliament to anticipate . For , scarcely a century before , the two chartered East India Companies , atter live years' internecine war , had coalesced to form that gigantic confederacy which for years monopolised the Indian trade , and rose to an unexampled pitch of corporate power and aggrandisement , at the cost of the mercantile community . " ' Just so , in 1817 , the great water companies coalesced against the public ; and coolly portioned out London between them . Their treatment , on this occasion , of the tenants so lately flattered and cajoled , will never be effaced from the public memory . Batches of customers wero handed over by one water company to another , not merely without their consent , but without even the civility of a notice . Old tenants of the New llivcr Company , who had taken their water for vears , and had been their
thick-andthin supporters through the battle , found themselves ungratefully turned over—without previous explanation—to drink the ' puddle' supplied by the Grand Junction Company . The abated rates we ' immediately raised , not merely to the former amount , but to charges from 25 to 400 per cent , more than they had been before the competition . * The solemnly-promised high service was suppressed , or made the pretext for a heavy extra charge . Many people had to regret ' selling thenforce-pumps as old lead , ' or fixing water-closets on their upper floors , on the faith of these treacherous contractors .
Those who had fitted up their houses with pipes , in reliance on the guarantee of ' unremitting pressure , ' found themselves obliged , either to sacrifice the first outlay , or to expend on cisterns and their appendages further sums , varying from 101 . or 201 . up to 50 / ., and even , in many cases , 100 Z . When tenants thus unhandsomely dealt by expressed their indignation and demanded redress , they were ' ] ocosely' reminded by smiling secretaries that the competition was over , and that those who were dissatisfied with the companies' supplies were quite at liberty to set up pumps of their own . '
" Thus , as in political affairs , Anarchyinvariably leads to Despotism , so , in commerce , Subversive Competition always ends its disorderly and ruinous course in Monopoly , which ( whether avowed or tacit , individual or collective ) is but Despotism in a lower sphere . " The cure for these evils lies in the Competitive Contract-system , which brings competition to bear for , instead of' , the field of supply ; so as to obviate the reckless multiplication of establishments , and capitals , and staffs , for the pcrfomanco of a service for which one would suflice . The evidence cited shows that the water companies might be bought out , so as to clear the way for the consolidation of the water ' supply with the drainage and other connected sanitary services , under a public authority , responsible to the ratc-puyers through
Parliament , and charged to supervise the due execution of the works by contractors competing freely , on open tender , in the public market ; a system obviously calculated to secure for the public the best possible service at the lowest possible rates . By empowering such an authority to buy the companies out , in full , with money borrowed nt' ' , ) or < J . , percent ., we should come into possession of their works at , an annual charge for interest , less by nearly I . wo-fifths ihiin our present annual payment to the companies . Hy consolidating the nine establishments thus acquired , we should save more than half the present working costs ; and by I ho further consolidations referred to above , for which ' ibis first one would prepare the- ground , we should still more reduce our annual charges , and still more improve our sanitary condition .
" Such is the course implied in the formula , of Sa KITA RY CONHOl . I DAT 1 ON , HT 1 UH "I'll It A 1 , AND A I ) M 1 N 1 STRATI VK ; II luminous and pregnant principle laid down by the Health of Towns Commissioners under Sir Robert IVel , embodied in the 11 cull h Act , under Lord . lohn Russell , and adopted as their guiding-rule by the Sanitary I ' art . y . J t is for Parliament Io consider whether , by rejecting this course , and adopting in its stead the fragmentary arrangoiueiil . s proponed in Lord . John JManners's bill , they will disavow anil reverse a principle thus sanctioned by our ablest modern slalcsman , deliberately allirmed by the tlircn branches of the Legishil uro in ( lie Health Act , now working so well , and unanimously adopted by the Party which especially devotes ilself to sanitary affairs .
" Should Parliament , adopt so unfortunate « . course , it will become the duly of the Sanitary Association plainly and por . Nisveringly Io denounce their inconsistency ; to appeal from Ihoir second Io their first decision ; and l . o demand on behalf of tho public , the ro-allirmal ion of the only I rue . sanitary policy , the policy of ( ' oNrtoi . i katkiN . " * A Dr . Kcrrison , for example , gave evidence thai , his rale hail been mined by I ho Grand . 1 unction Company from 'J / . Io six guineas and a half ; and Mini his next-door neighbour ' s hail been advanced from ' 2 ! . to seven guineas Mr . Hatched ,, the hotel-keeper in . Piccadilly , bail his rale raised , without , notice , from <>/ . to twenty-live guineas per annum ; bis supply being at the name time so greatly diminished thai- hn was obliged to sink a well 000 loot deep for the Hcrvioe of his coffee-room .
Untitled Article
OVERCROWDED STEAMBOATS . While the doors of the Court of Aldermen were closed on Tuesday , for the purpose of discussing a matter of sonic importance connected with the magistracy of tho city of London , Alderman Wilson brought forward , with the unanimous approbation of the Court , the motion—¦ " That it be referred to the Committee for General Purposes to appoint nn inspector of steamboats plying for hire between Gravesend and Westminster-bridge , to ascertain tho number of passengers carried at different times on board such boats , and to take such measures thereon to
prevent the overcrowding thereof as to tho committee may appear advisable . " He referral to the act of the 14 th and 15 th Victoria , c . 7 i ) , passed expressly to prevent that which was daily taking place on the Thames , to the imminent danger of life to all who , for business or pleasure , ventured on board . A person who embarked at Westminster , when there appeared to be moderate room , might be so jimmied in a crowd picked up before the vessel emitted London-bridge , as not to be able to move , and , were it not for the fresh breeze of the river , scarcely able to breathe , for it was no uncommon sight to behold 300 or 400 persons all huddled together in the fashion of
oxen , and sheep , and pigs , in that market , tho name of which would be soon merely historical . By tho fifth section of the act , the Hoard of Trade was required to furnish to tho owners mid masters of steam-vessels certificates ofthe 11 umber of passengers each vessel was constructed to carry , and by the 12 th , the owner or master of a s ( cam-vessel became liable to a penalty of tiOf . for carrying a greater number of passengers than the number stated in ( he certificate , and a penalty of 5 . v . for (¦ very passenger above ; the number specified . He thought the ; enforcement of the penally on only one steamboat would product ; such a panic among the owners of the craft , that very litlle more would be beard about overcrowded steamboats on the river Thames . It was to
be apprehended that the act , like many oilier nets infended for the public ^ ood , remained almost useless in consequence of ( be diflieuK . ie . s in the way of proving and enforcing the penalties , for by another clause tho parlies aggrieved could no ! , complain or lay the information . That neee . isury proceeding must be carried into cH'col , by a person appointed by the Hoard of Trade , and thai was Iho reason lie wished an inspector to be appointed , as Hie , Hoard of Trade would doubtless gladly empower such oflicer to enforce the clauses of this impoHant ael . If he should fail in that project lie would be prepared to lay before the committee rules and bylaws for thi ! regulation oftlio river , ikimkciI by the Court
Untitled Article
678 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Untitled Article
dred yards of the station , when it was brought to a stand for the purpose of detaching the engines ( according to the usual practice ) , and running the train on to the main line , which is not employed at this station for the ordinary passenger traffic ; but before the engines co uld be disposed of , the train , froin its weight ^ was again in motion , and , before the pointsman could attend to his duty , had passed on , down the incline , to t he usual passenger platform , which is adapted only for a short train , and terminates in a strong stone wall . The train entered the station with considerable impetus , and dashed against the buffers
DREADFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT . Sevebae monster excursion trains left Burnley on Monday , conveying upwards of 5 , 000 of the teachers , children , and friends of the various Sunday schools of the town to York , Goole , Liverpool , and other places . The Goole train , engaged by the Wesleyan Methodists , consisted of about 35 carriages , containing some 1 , 200 persons , and reached Burnley , on its return , about 11 . 30 p . m ., every one delighted with the day ' s trip to the sea , and quite unprepared for the most fearful railway accid ent which has ever oc curred in this neighbourhood . The train had arrived within a few
hunprotecting the wall , two of t he carriages being raised completely on end , and almost shivered to pieces by the concussion . The scene which ensued was most lamentable , and almost baffles description , the screams of mothers for their children be ing mingled with tho cries and groans of the wounded . The news of the calamity soon spread through the town , and the confusion was increased by the hundreds of people who crowded into the station . Mr . Superintendent Carswell , with a party of the county constabulary , was soon on the spot , and resorte d to act ive measures for the extrication of the injured , four of whom were found to be quite dead , and some 20 or 30 seriously
injured . A special engine was despatched to Manchester immediately after the accident for Mr . Hall , the passenger superintendent , who arrived at three o ' clock on Tuesday . After a careful investigation cf the circumstances , Mr . Hall is of opinion , that had the points been properly attended to , the accident would not have occurred . The pointsman ( John Parker ) was instantly arrested .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), July 17, 1852, page 678, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1943/page/10/
-