FIRE AND WATER

FIRE AND WATER

AN English expert was recently imported into Toronto, Ont., to estimate upon the amount that would be required to put its water system in first-class shape. He reported that to do so would involve an expenditure of $5,500,000. He recommends spending $486,000 for laying a steel pipe and constructing a tunnel from the intake to the pumping station; the construction of a $1 10,000 subsiding reservoir ; new mains to connect with the Rose Hill and Eglinton reservoirs; and spending $2,055,000 for filterbeds, and $110,000 for the plant to pump water to the filters. He scouts altogether the idea of bringing water from any inland source, such as Lake Simcoe, evidently not believing that Toronto will ever grow up to the enormous expense that would be involved in carrying out such a plan. In reality, the city can probably get on very well with the new conduit from the intake to the well and the subsiding reservoir, as the water at the intake is pure enough—much purer than that which is supplied to most cities. The tunnel should be begun at once, and the 6-foot steel pipe to replace the wooden conduit should be laid immediately. All the absolutely necessary improvements could be effected for much less than $1,000,000. The other recommendations, though desirable in many ways, seem merely subsidiary and can be undertaken at any time or not undertaken at all without any hurt inuring to Toronto’s citizens.

''"Tp^HKRH is in the hands of the assembly committee on cities at Albany, N. Y., a bill which proposes certain amendments to existing laws controling the erection and maintenance of tenement houses, which has provoked a storm of protest. Foremost among the protesters are Chief Bonner, of the New York fire department,and Superintendent Constable of the building department. Chief Bonner is apparently of the opinion of Edward Sturges llosmer, assistant attorney for the building department, who says that the proposed law is “thoroughly vicious,” and that its outcome would be the erection of firetraps—to say nothing of the buildings being all they should not be from a sanitary point of view. He quotes the following as one of the principal objections to the bill: