All the powers of the Poor Law Board were transferred to it, also certain powers and duties vested in Her Majesty’s Privy Council. Several of the powers vested in or imposed on a Secretary of State, relative to health matters, were also transferred to it. Henceforth no bye-laws made by the sanitary authorities in connection with their duties were to be of any force until approved by the new Board.
Also the Board was to possess, in reserve for great epidemic emergencies, a power to issue directions under the Diseases Prevention Act, 1855.
But with the exception of such special cases, the function of the new Central Authority in regard of local sanitary action was primarily one of observation and inquiry.
The various Vestries and District Boards of the Metropolis being sanitary authorities thus came under the supervision, and in some respects under the control, of the new Central Government Board, instead of, as previously, under a branch of the office of the Secretary of State for the Home Department; but to all intents and purposes they retained their liberty of administration, or, to state it more accurately, their liberty of non-administration. Their relations to the elected central body, the Metropolitan Board of Works, remained unchanged.
In 1871, also, Parliament dealt with the water supply of London. The essential importance to the health of the population, especially in large towns, of an adequate supply of wholesome water was becoming more generally recognised.
“Without water life cannot be sustained, cleanliness cannot be maintained, sanitary measures are at a standstill, drains become blocked, offensive and deleterious gases are retained or driven back into the dwellings, disease is caused and fostered, and public as well as private injury caused in all directions.”
The Act of 1852 had failed to secure for the inhabitants the advantage which they ought to have long since enjoyed, of a well-regulated supply of water in their houses for domestic purposes.
A Select Committee of the House of Commons recommended that every company should afford a constant supply of water to each house,[120] so that the water might be drawn direct and fresh from the company’s pipes at all times during the twenty-four hours, and free from the pollution so often acquired in dirty receptacles. And a Royal Commission, appointed in 1867, after an elaborate inquiry,[121] declared that earnest and prompt efforts ought to be made to introduce the constant service system to the furthest extent possible in the metropolis. The Report of the Royal Commission is memorable for the very strong expression of opinion that the water supply of the metropolis should be consolidated under public control.
The duty of supplying the inhabitants of a city with water had from a very early period been regarded as a peculiarly municipal function, and the supersession of the municipalities by joint stock companies was a comparatively modern innovation.
Thus far, however, Parliament was not disposed to go. But (by the Metropolis Water Act, 1871) Parliament—contenting itself mostly with “mights”—directed that any company might propose to give a constant supply of water, or the Metropolitan Board of Works might apply to a company for it; failing both of which, and under certain conditions, the Board of Trade might require a constant supply to be provided. Also every company should—