A WATER FAMINE AVERTED.

A WATER FAMINE AVERTED.

由于木星Pluvius德而不是水partment of New York city, the threatened water famine has been averted, and for a few weeks to come the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn will breathe easily and hope for further rainy spells as the water in the reservoirs again begins to grow lower. The rain did not come down a minutd too soon. A few hours longer and the water supply of a large section of Brooklyn would have been altogether cut off—and what an amount of suffering and inconvenience that involves in a large and populous district only those who have already gone through a similar experience can tell. The dwellers in the Bronx (who, by the way, owing to the dilatory course pursued by the municipal authorities are not yet by any means fully relieved from their troubles) have possibly even greater cause for complaint than those in Brooklyn. Like Tantalus, they have seen the water within reach, only to find it eluding their grasp when closest at hand. They have gone unwashen; they have paid a high price for a few quarts of water (they had to pay their water rates as well); they have suffered from disease ; they have looked dispairingly upon valuable property burned before their eyes and the fire department powerless to avert the disaster through lack of the means wherewith to fight the flames—and all because of the hindrance towards the consummation of their desires put in their way by the apathy or worse by those in whose hands lay the remedy. For months the unhappy inhabitants of the Bronx have stretched out their hands to the city's commissioner of water supply and cried, “Carest thou not that we perish?” and he has either answered them never a word, or through his subordinates has enacted the part of a Job’s comforter and told themthat things must go from bad to worse before relief can come. The real culprits, however, the aldermen, the municipal council, and the board of estimate of the city, he has virtually pronounced innocent of that criminal negligence at whose door lies the blame for lives, property, and money lost. One lesson all the citizens of New York have learned—namely, that some measures must be taken and taken at once to prevent the recurrence of such an evil condition of affairs. That the city stands in need of some additional source of supply There is no doubt. But that is in the future, and even were the source at band today, it would be many months before it could be made available. What is wanted is to provide a remedy here and now by having a stop put to the waste of water that is going on, much of it above ground, some below it. The excavations for the rapid transit tunnel have shown that a few mains leak copiously, and yet some of these very leaks discovered three weeks ago have not yet been stopped. That could he done, and an emergency appropriation could easily be set apart to enlist a corps of honest competent inspectors to find out where these leaks, or, at all events, some of them are, and report upon them, as well as to inspect and report upon all leaking faucets, services, valves, etc., in private houses, factories, barbers’ shops, stores, saloons, laundries, drug stores, and the like, where at present the useless drain upon the reservoirs goes on every moment culpably unrecked of, unlet, or hindered by the authorities. There are also the fire hydrants, with their chronic condition of leak, to be inspected, and many other sources of waste which, should be as well known to the water department as they are to private individuals, to the police,and to the fire department. This needless waste amounts to millions of gallons daily. It could be stopped in great measure by the adoption of some such step as that proposed above. It would be nearly entirely remedied by the enforcement of compulsory meterage—the fairest, as well as the most effectual means of putting an end to that wilful waste which has of last made snch woeful want. The expense, we grant, would be heavy; but it would be spread over a long time, and in the end would more than pay for itself.

由于木星Pluvius德而不是水partment of New York city, the threatened water famine has been averted, and for a few weeks to come the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn will breathe easily and hope for further rainy spells as the water in the reservoirs again begins to grow lower. The rain did not come down a minutd too soon. A few hours longer and the water supply of a large section of Brooklyn would have been altogether cut off—and what an amount of suffering and inconvenience that involves in a large and populous district only those who have already gone through a similar experience can tell. The dwellers in the Bronx (who, by the way, owing to the dilatory course pursued by the municipal authorities are not yet by any means fully relieved from their troubles) have possibly even greater cause for complaint than those in Brooklyn. Like Tantalus, they have seen the water within reach, only to find it eluding their grasp when closest at hand. They have gone unwashen; they have paid a high price for a few quarts of water (they had to pay their water rates as well); they have suffered from disease ; they have looked dispairingly upon valuable property burned before their eyes and the fire department powerless to avert the disaster through lack of the means wherewith to fight the flames—and all because of the hindrance towards the consummation of their desires put in their way by the apathy or worse by those in whose hands lay the remedy. For months the unhappy inhabitants of the Bronx have stretched out their hands to the city's commissioner of water supply and cried, “Carest thou not that we perish?” and he has either answered them never a word, or through his subordinates has enacted the part of a Job’s comforter and told themthat things must go from bad to worse before relief can come. The real culprits, however, the aldermen, the municipal council, and the board of estimate of the city, he has virtually pronounced innocent of that criminal negligence at whose door lies the blame for lives, property, and money lost. One lesson all the citizens of New York have learned—namely, that some measures must be taken and taken at once to prevent the recurrence of such an evil condition of affairs. That the city stands in need of some additional source of supply There is no doubt. But that is in the future, and even were the source at band today, it would be many months before it could be made available. What is wanted is to provide a remedy here and now by having a stop put to the waste of water that is going on, much of it above ground, some below it. The excavations for the rapid transit tunnel have shown that a few mains leak copiously, and yet some of these very leaks discovered three weeks ago have not yet been stopped. That could he done, and an emergency appropriation could easily be set apart to enlist a corps of honest competent inspectors to find out where these leaks, or, at all events, some of them are, and report upon them, as well as to inspect and report upon all leaking faucets, services, valves, etc., in private houses, factories, barbers’ shops, stores, saloons, laundries, drug stores, and the like, where at present the useless drain upon the reservoirs goes on every moment culpably unrecked of, unlet, or hindered by the authorities. There are also the fire hydrants, with their chronic condition of leak, to be inspected, and many other sources of waste which, should be as well known to the water department as they are to private individuals, to the police,and to the fire department. This needless waste amounts to millions of gallons daily. It could be stopped in great measure by the adoption of some such step as that proposed above. It would be nearly entirely remedied by the enforcement of compulsory meterage—the fairest, as well as the most effectual means of putting an end to that wilful waste which has of last made snch woeful want. The expense, we grant, would be heavy; but it would be spread over a long time, and in the end would more than pay for itself.