MR. S. BALFOURasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If his attention has been directed to the proceedings, as reported in "The Standard" newspaper of the 27th May, at the inquest held on the deaths of two men by fire at North Woolwich, when all the witnesses complained of the lack of water, several of the jury said that the water service, which was nominally constant, had been practically no supply at all for a fortnight, and the Coroner remarked that he had just seen children begging for water at the Raihvay Station; and, if he will direct inquiries to be made on the subject and take such steps as may be necessary to compel the Metropolitan Water Companies to fulfil their statutory obligations to provide a sufficient supply of water for the extinction of fires?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTSir, with respect to the first part of the Question of the hon. Member, I have received a letter from the Coroner, dated May 31, in which he says that, according to the statements of various persons who attended the inquests on the two men who lost their lives by fire, the account as reported in The standard is perfectly correct. It was plain that no water was to be had, and that, generally speaking, the supply of water in Silvertown is, and ever has been, most insufficient, and sometimes there is no supply at all. With respect to the second part of the Question, I am sorry to say that no statutory power exists to compel the Metropolitan Water Companies to provide a sufficient supply of water for the extinction of fires. I will read a short extract to show how that matter stands. The Report of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Committee states that the—
Companies are controlled by general enactments, subject to which they were governed by their own Acts, each company having a separate system of pipes and peculiar regulations suitable to their special circumstances. None of the companies were under any obligation to provide water for the extinction of fire. All that was required of them under the general enactments was to allow the gratuitous use of water for that purpose. But, except in that particular, the companies throughout the kingdom, whether private or public, were treated as mere purveyors of water for general consumption, and were authorized to carry on this business, considering simply the convenience of their customers and the profits of their shareholders. The result was that, while what was needed was an ample delivery of water, the conditions by which that might be secured could not be easily satisfied.That is, I believe a true statement of the existing state of the law on the subject, and it is one of the most unsatisfactory features of the present water supply of the Metropolis.