strong relief the uneven results that come from the application of the company's peculiar combination of minimum and meter rates.

The following is a summary of the water charges for the past seven years against the house at 75 Gleane Street, Elmhurst:

TABLE 6-ANALYSIS OF WATER CONSUMPTION IN A ONE-FAMILY HOUSE AT ELMHURST
AND OF THE CHARGES THEREFOR BY THE CITIZENS WATER SUPPLY COMPANY
OF NEWTOWN, 1909 TO 1916

Total consumption in seven years, 47,410 cu. ft. or 354,627 gallons.
Average consumption per day for family of 6 persons.

Daily per capita consumption.
Average annual charge for family of 6.
Average annual charge per capita..

138.7 gallons
23.1 gallons
$11.09
$1.85

This house is a semi-detached brick dwelling, with a 20-foot front and two stories high, with two finished rooms on the third floor. It contains one bath, one toilet, eight faucets altogether, and no outside hose connection. Hose is connected with the laundry faucet in the basement and used to water a small garden and a lawn with a frontage of 50 feet. The company charges a minimum rate of $7 per annum. The city would add $1 for the third floor, and $5 for hose if its use were discovered. If the premises were unmetered, the city rates would be $13 per annum, or $91 for the period, as against the company's charge of $77.63. If the premises were metered, the city rates would be $47.41 for the period, or an average of $6.77 per annum. In other words, the city frontage rates, strictly applied, would be 17 per cent higher, and the city meter rate would be 39 per cent lower than the company's rates.

Another house in the same vicinity is a detached building, with a 29foot front and two stories, with rooms finished on the third floor. It has two baths, two toilets and no outside hose connection. Hose is occasionally used on a 50-foot lawn. The company's charge for the past ten years has been uniformly $8 for each half year. No "excess" water has been used and the actual consumption has not been indicated on the bills. The house is occupied by two retired school teachers, who usually keep two or three lodgers. If this house was on the city service, an extra dollar would be charged for the third floor and $5 for a hose permit, making $22 per annum instead of the company's charge of $16. If the service

was metered, however, the city rates would be much lower, probably not more than $5 or $6 a year, and perhaps even less.

In the Evergreen and Ridgewood sections, where houses are built in solid blocks the same as in Brooklyn, the results are quite different. Mr. Paul Stier, a prominent builder in that portion of the ward, submitted bills for 28 three-family and 41 two-family houses in Van Cortlandt Avenue, Putnam Avenue, Cornelia Street, Catalpa Avenue, Edsall Avenue, Stier Place, Buckman Avenue and Foxhall Street, for the two half-year periods from November 1, 1913, to May 1, 1914, and from May 1, 1914, to November 1, 1914. Of the entire 138 bills there were only 12 containing no charge for "excess water." Disregarding the small amount allowed in the minimum rates and not consumed in these few cases, we have the following summary:

Mr. G. X. Mathews, another extensive builder in the Ridgewood section, submitted to me bills for a large number of houses covering various periods. They may be grouped as follows:

A. For the year May 1, 1913, to May 1, 1914, one one-family house, six four-family houses and thirteen six-family houses-in all, 20 houses and 103 families.

B. For a fractional year averaging 101⁄2 months from various dates in May, June, July and August, 1913, to May 1, 1914, 19 sixfamily houses; total families, 114.

C. For the six months period from May 1, 1913, to November I, 1913, II six-family houses.

D. For the six months period from November 1, 1913, to May 1, 1914, one one-family and two four-family houses-in all, threehouses and nine families.

E. For the six months period from May I to November 1, 1914, two two-family, nine four-family and 39 six-family houses-in all, 50 houses and 274 families.

The company's bills for the groups of houses above described are analyzed in Table 7.

It will be noted that the Stier bills show rates 74 per cent higher, while the Mathews bills show rates only 14.4 per cent higher than the city frontage rates. The Stier houses show excess charges of $436.19 for the winter half year as compared with $387.51 for the summer half. On the other hand, group "A" of the Mathews houses for which bills for an entire year were presented shows excess charges of $54.60 for the summer half as compared with $24.60 for the winter half. Mr. Mathews stated that he kept a close supervision over the consumption of water in all his houses. This may account for the lower consumption as compared with the Stier houses, particularly in the winter..

TABLE 7-CITIZENS WATER SUPPLY COMPANY OF NEWTOWN

SUMMARY OF WATER CHARGES IN HOUSES OF G. X. MATHEWS, RIDGEWOOD DISTRICT, SECOND WARD OF QUEENS

Water

Total

Group

of

Houses

of
Families

Covered

Cu. Ft.

Number Number Period Total Water Consumed Consumed Charges
at
-Per Family
Gallons Per Annum Company
(Gallons) Rates

An analysis of the accounts of 22 one-family, 21 two-family and three ten-family houses owned by the Queensboro Corporation showed the company's rates to be 38.8 per cent in excess of city meter rates and 56.9 per cent in excess of city frontage rates.

The water company states that for the half year ending November 1, 1914, 58.5 per cent of its consumers paid only the minimum rates; 24.2 per cent paid not more than $2 excess; 10.9 per cent paid from $2 to $5 excess; 3.9 per cent paid from $5 to $10 excess; and 2.5 per cent paid upwards of $10 excess. For the winter half, ending May 1, 1915, the percentages were 66.1, 20.5, 8.9, 3.1 and 1.4, respectively.

An instructive sidelight on the Citizens company's rates is thrown by the water charges collected by the Sage Foundation Homes Company, operating the development at Forest Hills Gardens. The Sage company commenced operations in 1910, constructed its own water distribution system, including mains, fire hydrants and appurtenances, and purchased its entire supply of water from the Citizens company through a meter located on a 6-inch main in Continental Avenue. The Sage company paid the Citizens company at the rate of 10 cents per 100 cubic feet, and in turn collected from the various property owners at the Gardens rates nominally the same as the Citizens company's domestic rates. As a matter of fact, however, the Foundation applied as minimum rates not the city frontage rates, as applied by the Citizens company, but a modified schedule of frontage rates similar to that now in use by the Jamaica Water Supply Company on one-family houses in Jamaica and in use in Brooklyn prior to consolidation. This frontage rate schedule is about 10 per cent higher than the city frontage rates now in force. Moreover, in applying the schedule as a schedule of minimum rates the Foundation followed the city practice of charging for three stories in the case of houses of the type that have been constructed at Forest Hills Gardens, but the meter rates charged by the Foundation, both in determining the allowance of water under the minimum rates and in determining the charges for "excess" water, were the same as those of the Citizens company. The Foundation made its first general reading of the meters on private dwellings on November 1, 1912, and sent out its first bills to private consumers for the six months ending May 1, 1913. The Foundation continued to supply water to its patrons in the manner above described until November 1, 1915. The distribution system was then transferred to the Citizens company, and a direct relationship established between the latter and the consumers at the Gardens. The Foundation opened its books to the department and we were therefore enabled to make a detailed study of the effect of various rate schedules, on the basis of water actually consumed for domestic purposes in this community. For the purpose of this comparison the accounts were analyzed for the year ending November 1, 1915, and a tabulation prepared showing the consumption of water at each house and the charges that would have been levied upon the property owner at city meter rates, at city frontage rates, at the Citizens company's rates and at the Jamaica Water Supply Company's frontage rates, as well as at the minimum rates figured by the Citizens company, the minimum rates figured by the Sage Foundation and the total rates charged by the Sage Foundation. This comparison for 166 individual houses is shown in the following table.