Company obtained another Act enlarging and extending the powers formerly granted them. The purchase of these works was urgently pressed upon the consideration of the Police Commissioners by a numerous section of the inhabitants, who justly considered, from the profits which accrued from the works, that if they were the property of the town, they might receive an article so necessary to their health and comfort at a reduced rate of cost. The proposal, however, met with much opposition from one portion of the Board, and they were unable to come to any agreement with regard to it. The Corporation having got all their most pressing arrangements completed, took up the matter, and they were so far successful that in June, 1854, an Act was passed enabling the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses to purchase and maintain gas and water works. The result gave general satisfaction in the town, but another difficulty arose, for it was found that the existing works were inadequate for the proper supply of the population, and for necessary manufacturing purposes. Under these circumstances, application was made to Parliament for an Act to enable them to construct additional works. The supply was previously obtained from the source of the River Medlock, from 800 acres of gathering ground in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and after deducting the quantity sent down to the mills on the stream, gave a supply equal to about a million gallons per day. The requirements of the inhabitants exceeded that quantity, and the new Act, therefore, gave them power to run a conduit along tho sides of the hills past Watersheddings and Sholver to Brushes Clough, calculated to give an extra half million gallons daily, and to construct three reservoirs at Piethorn Clough, to receive the water from 1500 acres of gathering ground, giving another million and a half gallons daily, besides supplying the mills on the stream. Some opposition was offered to the bill by the Rochdale commissioners, the Heywood Waterworks Company, and other parties, but through the skilful and judicious management of the gentlemen who had

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