SUMMARY OF WATER SUPPLY STATISTICS. At the end of 1891 the State contained 28 cities and 323 towns, no change having been made in the number of cities or towns since the previous year. During 1891 a public water supply was introduced into the towns of Foxborough, Holliston, Leicester, Millis and Reading, so that at the end of the year all of the cities and 114 towns, a total of 142 places, were provided with a public water supply. The following table gives a classification, by population, of cities and towns having and not having public water supplies Dec. 31, 1891. The populations are taken from the census of 1890: From the totals given in the table it will be seen that, although but forty per cent. of the cities and towns in the State have a public water supply, yet the total population of places supplied represents 86.6 per cent. of the whole population of the State. In this estimate of the total population of municipalities supplied all of the inhabitants in them are included, and it consequently includes rather more than the actual number of persons to whom a public water supply is available; the difference, however, is not large. There are now but 7 towns having a population exceeding 4,000 which are not provided with a public water supply. These are given in the following In the following table the various water supplies are classified according to the dates when a fairly complete system of supply was first introduced into a city or town: Of the 28 cities in the Commonwealth, 24, having a total population in 1890 of 1,302,929, own their water works, while 4, having a total population of 69,371, are wholly supplied by private companies. Of the 114 towns having public water supplies, 64, with a total population of 350,577, are supplied from their own works, while 50, with a total population of 215,481, are supplied by private companies. The total population in both cities and towns owning their works is 1,653,506, against 284,852 in those supplied by private companies. The following table gives statistics with regard to the consumption of water in many of the cities and towns in this State. The populations for 1891, as given in the table, were obtained in a somewhat arbitrary manner by adding one-fifth of the increase in population from 1885 to 1890 to the population as determined by the census taken in the latter year. The daily consumption per inhabitant, obtained by dividing the average daily consumption by the total population of the city or town in 1891, shows a large variation, which, in most cases, is due to the different rate at which water is used in different places. In some cases, however, where the consumption per inhabitant is very low, it is occasioned by using the total population of the town as a divisor when only a limited portion of the inhabitants were supplied with water. This is especially the case where there are villages in the town to which the water works have not been extended, or where works have recently been built and there has not been sufficient time for the general introduction of water. Statistics relating to the Consumption of Water in various Cities and Towns. * The population given is that of the whole town but only a part of the town is supplied with water. |