weeks together, persons are unable to obtain so much as would make them a cup of tea without buying or borrowing from some other source than that to which they have a fee-simple right, it is, we submit high time to look out for a better and more certain supply. What boots it that we first pay 6d. in the £, then 9d., then back again to 6d. (when there is competition in the field), if that 6d. or 9d. is sternly demanded for an article not supplied? ‘Twere better by far to give a shilling[1] for an equivilent(sic) than half that sum for nothing or next to nothing. Time is money, and it is a lavish expenditure of that valuable commodity when one is compelled to remain up half the night in the endeavour to obtain sufficient of the “pure element”, - as our teetotal friends describe it - for the morrow’s consumption. This we have ourselves done repeatedly, and, after burning gas and fuel to keep us warm, have had to seek the moiety of a night’s rest with vexation of spirit.
To complain of short-commons appears to be useless. There is a leakage in the pipes, we are told, and as soon as it can be discovered the evil shall be remedied. But how many more months or years are we to wait for this discovery? Already our rain-water ducts have been brought into necessary proximity with the cisterns for sanitary purposes neglected by the Western Water Works, and but for which other channels than that of the human throat must have been often choked.
“Taxation without Accommodation” is the battle-cry of the western water-mongers, as waged against the eastern, and the power of the latter to enforce certain charges is strongly doubted by the former. We rather share in this doubt; but while we question the legality of the Local Board taxing us for probable deficiencies of money, we also claim an equal immunity from charges in connection with our present deficiencies in the water supply.
Whether the Local Board are in a position to supply us better than we have hitherto been served from the Eversfield reservoirs we are unable to say, although we opine that with only their present means they are not; but the existent state of things is intolerable, and is not likely to be borne any great length of time after it is once shown that greater accommodation can be obtained from another source, even though the cost be somewhat enhanced.
Legal Proceedings. The laying down of water mains in the western district as shown in the foregoing editorial induced Mr. Clark, the proprietor or lessee of the Eversfield Water Works, to apply to the Vice Chancellor’s Court for an injunction to restrain the Hastings Local Board in such a course. An adjourned hearing of the application took place on the 21st of March, when the plaintiff’s bill urged that by laying down pipes for supplying water to the district in which his pipes were laid had materially affected the right claimed by him as a “Water-works Company”. He had re-
- ↑ An explanation of old currency and coinage may be found at the following website Pre-decimal currency, accessdate: 16 June 2022
