THE TORRENS WATER BILL.
THE Water question is, for Londoners at least, the question of the day. It is in great measure owing to the excite- ment on this question that the London Government Bill has taken a leading place in the programme of the Session, and it is owing to the continued aggressiveness of the Water Com- panies that it will be converted into an Act of Parliament. London is assured that nothing short of union will enable it to cope with those overgrown monopolies, and it looks to the new Municipality to give it pure and copious supplies of water at a reasonable cost. Meanwhile, it is satisfactory to find that the Government are going to lend what assistance they can to the consumer against the grasping of the Companies. The Home Secretary, indeed, one of whose chief functions at present is to be a sort of supplemental Common Council and Metropolitan Board of Works, can offer no immediate help. But the President of the Local Government Board is coming to the rescue, and going to lend his powerful assistance in passing an amended edition of what is now known as the Torrens Water Bill. There can be little doubt that the favourable reception given by Sir Charles Dilke to the deputation on this subject on Monday was largely due to the letters of " B.," in the columns of the " leading journal." The rush of that sagacious but ponderous beast the elephant has, from the time of Pyrrhus downwards, been found to be quite as dangerous to friend as to foe. The reckless rampagings of " B." on the subject of the Torrens Bill have in the same way done much more harm to his clients the Water Companies, than to the poor water consumers whom he intended to trample upon. They have even damaged " B." himself ; for even his legal sagacity has been shown to have been wanting when he hazarded the statements that " local authorities are persons interested in settling the annual net value as low as possible," or that, while any individual could appeal against the assessment, the " Water Company could not, though the whole parish is under-rated." As for the charges of " invasion of property " and " confisca- tion of rights," these are vague denunciations which we are so accustomed to hear from "B." and his school, that nobody marks them, or if any one does mark them, it is as a sign that justice is going to be done for some one who has hitherto been defrauded.
This is exactly the case in the present instance. For some years the Water Companies of London have been charging water-rates on the gross annual value of the property, as shown by the parochial rate-books. The people groaned, but paid, until Mr; Archibald Dobbs arose and discomfited the spoiler, and showed that the "annual value" on which the water-rate ought to be charged is not gross but "net annual value." In other words, he showed that the Companies have been overtaxing the consumer to the tune of from 50 to 16* per cent. a year, accord- ing to the value of the house. But the Companies, who formerly were willing enough to abide by the valuation list when they levied on the gross annual value shown thereby, now say,— "The valuation list is no guide to the net annual value. We will assess on our own net annual value." And how do they do it ? They do not have a proper and general valuation made by public valuers, and request the consumers to name their valuers, and fix the value by impartial arbitration. They prefer to take the rate-book, and by making at their own will an arbitrary addition to the rateable value, find an annual value which has no more relation to the true value than a shot in the dark has to a true aim. They trust to the ignorance, the timidity, and the weakness of purse of the individual consumer ; and in most cases they do not trust in vain. The result is that they are saving five to ten per cent. of the loss which would otherwise fall upon them, if that can be properly called loss which consists in not making an illegal gain. Thereupon, Mr. Torrens steps in to the rescue, and proposes to pass a general measure enacting that the words " annual value " in the Waterworks Clauses Act, 1847 (which the different Water Companies Acts incorporate), is to mean the " net annual value as settled by the local authorities "—in other words, the rateable value. The reasons for taking this as the standard are obvious. The rate-book is the only public common standard of value. It is settled with excessive care by skilled persons who have a lengthy traditional experience. It is open to appeal, the first steps of which can be taken in an inexpensive manner, by any individual who feels himself aggrieved by his own assessment being too high, or by his neighbour's being too low. In London, under the Valuation Act of 1869, one parish may complain of another parish, and it is the interest of every parish to get the valuations of the others raised; while the Surveyor of the Queen's Taxes may " round upon " the whole lot. Above all, both in London and the country, the Water Companies, as ratepayers, have themselves the right, and, what is more than most ratepayers have, also the power, of appealing if they think the assessment too low. What more natural and proper than that this public, long-tested standard should be fixed as the compulsory standard by which water company and consumer should be bound to abide, just as the Crown and the taxpayer are bound to abide by it ? If the Companies wish to act fairly, nothing could be better for them than thus to be saved from the expensive process of valuation, the results of which are liable to be tested by the even more expensive process of litigation. So obvious are the reasons in favour of adopting this course, that the President of the Local Government Board has determined to take up Mr. Torrens' little Bill, which only consists of a single clause, in amended form, and will no doubt pass it. From what could be gathered from Sir Charles Dilke's speech, it is to be feared that the effect of the amendments will be to limit the scope of the Bill to London. This is hard on the dwellers in other towns where the Municipality does not supply its own water. Other places groan under the tyranny of private Companies. The Waterworks Clauses Act of 1847 is general, and extortion under it has been general also. There is no reason why the unfortunate water-drinker of county towns—like Winchester, for example—should be excluded from the benefits of the Act, and it is to be hoped that the amendment will be made as general as the evil to be amended.
Even when the amendment has been made, for London at least, the relief will be but temporary. In 1886, as Sir Charles Dilke pointed out, another of the quinquennial re- valuations of London takes place. As a rule, at each new valuation a large increase is made in the assessments. In fact, in 1886 Water Companies will recover a large part of what they are now being reluctantly compelled to disgorge. They will reap an " unearned increment " indeed. Without the smallest improvement in the quantity or quality of the supply of water, without the smallest increase in the service rendered, without even taking the trouble or incurring the odium of de- manding an increase of rent, an enormous increase of rent will be made to flow into their pockets. The attempts, predoomed to failure, to resist a reduction of their demands have called attention to the essential injustice of the principle on which their demands are based. The City Corporation and the Metropolitan Board of Works grievously failed in their duty to those they profess to represent, by not taking steps to prevent this taxation without return of the London public by the Water Companies when the Valuation Act was passed. Something must be done to prevent its recurrence in the future. This is a strong argument in favour of the London Government Bill's being allowed to pass this year. Even if it does pass, the new Corporation will have barely had time to organise itself before this question of valuation will be forced upon it. If it does not, the Companies will be able to fleece the consumer more closely than before, their vested interests will be stronger, and their purchase-price will be raised more outrageously than ever.
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