The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-11-30 00:00:00

:* 1818

• '', if
Tear C
~ Oise aware that in annoy siteationsi
Sthin Aisle sive district there is riot, and per-
-4
bops can *lvor be, any competition between the
Waterlwork Cleopitsiies, and that in all sorb cases
the inhabisant oust pay any sum, however exorbitant,
which the Cowponies may charge, or be absolutely
deprive 4 el teeter consider it would be hig'ily es-
' pedient end Aleneicial, that measures should be adopt-
eel to protect the Public from such demands. AA
•your Committee bate obtained abundant information
of such exorbitant demands having hero made in'
ahaey.cales, and knowing it is the cpnstant practice
of late of the ton Companies where no competition
•
exists, cannot but consider tkaubsestre of a protecting
chime in the present Acts as • principal defect.-..
(Vide Appendis, No. 6.)
In the alath.place, therefore, it should, be enacted,
',That in ell eases where no competition exist., aid
wlverelbe lehebitatit may thiuk himself aggrieved by
the charge for, water, the price demanded shall be
fixed by arbitration.
.You Committee, folly aware from daily experience
of the abases, that time alone, independent of private
interests Constantly operating, will engender even in
the best constituted Societies, are anxious some ti-
gelation* should be enacted, calculated to check their
uncontrolled progression. And your Committee are
of opiaion, any commercial institutinn, in which the
profits of trade promise to increase with time, and
scarcely to know any limit, is itijeriees to society,
and dangerous to the Slate. It should therefore be
enacted in the proposed amendments, that an annual
account of the net income and profits of the East
London sail. New River Water Companies, should
he given in oil neth,t9 the Rouse of Commons, and a
certain woof dividend, without any bonus, fixed as a
per tentage upon the actual value of the original
shares. Thus placing ender the controul of Pain/.
~meat, those enormous sums, which in time would ae.
cumulates and might otherwise be converted to Ws
.peses of dangerous nature,
Your Committee conceive it extremely unjust that
thiV frit high prices. for water should be continued,'
*km ie. one Crimper), the large profits derived have
raised the original shares many hundreds per centum;
end the shores of the other hare borne a premium of
130 *Per cention. (Vide Appendix, No. 64—But
when it le known these Companies are daily in.
rreSsing their already exorbitant charges, the rotor-
miry at the *ail becomes more apparent, and ins
contirinhasce wordy incompatible with the public in-
Irreatl.
Ynuicgaropitter having, now enumerated the prin-
t-spat ile.lii'io the present Atta% and having shown
some of the evils resulting therefrom, beg Wave to
claim attention to the second object of their con-
auletation, namely —" The Combination of the East
Condon wirk I he New Ritter Compton)."
Volt,' Commuter on entering into this subject of
their investigsni..n, feel duly sensible of itsimpart.
sow., viol cannot but acknowledge it a matter of ea-
treiMe &Jiang*, To charge soy individuals with an
isfancetor in.helnpUsa nature as a combination against
any others, is a serious matter. how much more se-
rioes must it he considered when this charge is brought
against two Chartered Companiea, whose riches and
high public character Ought to have placed them
beyond those temptations which hurry the poor and
wretched into misfortunes and the worst of crimes.
Your Committee are shocked tit the consideration, and
mould have gladly passed over this subject, so pain-
ful to their feelings. Bat the evidence they are pos-
sessed of, added to the notoriety of the Companies
pachange of pipes., as laid down in several districts,
left no alternative, and compelled them in the honest
discharge of their duty to charge these Companies
with a conthiaoon, as criminal and indefensible as
any that ever fell beneath the weighty sentence of
the la w.,---( Vide Appendix, No. 7.) Such are
the impressions made upon your Committee, that
they thought it most advisable to incorporate
the evidence in the Report. Added to this, is the
evidence of Mr. Ralph Dodd, one of the first engi.
neers of the present day, a Gentleman to whose ta-
lents this great city is in an eminent degree indebted
for many of those new and splendid works of art
with which it is now adorned. This important evi-
dence will trace the cause* which led to the combine.
lion, and prove, in the opinion of your Committee,
beyond dispute, a series of acts of fraud, extrava-
gance, and follies,- certainly unprecedented in the
hioory us any ocher Company ; and which could re-
ceive no other support and arrive at no other result
than this criminal combination. In proof of the
combination, your Committee now state the evidence
of Mt. J. B. Sharpe, *hid) is as follows :--.-" That
on an appeal to the Directors of the East Loudon
Water Company, the Chtirmso of the Committee
informed him, the Company could not grant any re-
dress, since the district in which he resided was now
turned over to the New River Company, and that he
was to consider himself as taking water of that Com-
',pony. The Chairman further slated, this regulation
was in consequence of a deed regularly entered into
between the two Companies, by the first leg.al ad-
vice ; and that it was.therein stipulated, all those in-
habitants who took water of them, hot who were
now turned over to the New River Company, should
be amply supplied with good water, and at the same
prices."
tour Committee consider this strong evidence of
the combination being regularly entered into by the
two iCempanies. The evidence in the Appendix
(No. 8) will prove the Companies had no regard for
their own stipulations, since no sooner had the New
Riser Company taken posyssion of this district their
they raised the water generally 25 per cent. and in
the other case raised the prices to the amount former-
ly paid, when no competiliun existed.
Mr. IL Dodd states:—" Be was originally em-
PIST.II al Vilinegre 111111 FIONA th. Not Landau
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