dam and raceway. It has also acquired pole locations for lines in neighboring towns, but it has no power plant or lines as yet, and is not an operating company.

WATER COMPANIES.

By chapter 787 of the Acts of 1914 the Board was given general supervision of all corporations and companies engaged in the distribution and sale of water in this commonwealth and occupying the public streets with their mains and pipes for that purpose." ." This act did not take effect until Aug. 1, 1914, and no returns have yet been filed by these companies with this Board. By chapter 660 of the Acts of 1913 such companies were required to file with the Commissioner of Corporations a report in the month of January of each year of its financial condition and operations during the preceding calendar year. The following is a list of all of such companies known to the Board, with their respective locations and outstanding capital stock and bonds.

ABATEMENT OF SMOKE.

The organization of the work imposed upon the Board by the provisions of chapter 651 of the Acts of 1910, relative to the abatement of smoke in Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett and Somerville, has not been changed during the calendar year 1914. The Board has continued its policy of making prompt investigations of all complaints received, with notice of the resulting observations to the parties concerned, followed by further observations after a reasonable interval to permit correction of improper conditions. The inspectors have also continued to make, on their own initiative, periodic and systematic examinations and tests throughout the district, and the number of such investigations far exceeds the number of complaints received by the Board. The inspectors have made it a practice to follow up detected violations of the law by an immediate examination of the offending premises, with a view to ascertain the cause. By this means violations due to careless or ignorant firing have been promptly brought to the attention of those in charge and practical suggestions made for changes in installations and firing which in many instances have proved an effective preventive of further violations.

The Board has given five public hearings, and in two instances has found it necessary to issue the formal order required by the statute as a preliminary to proceedings in court. Such proceedings were subsequently brought, resulting in the issue of restraining orders by the Superior Court and convictions and fines in the municipal court.

It has been pointed out in previous reports that the law is not designed to prevent the emission of all smoke. A very considerable amount may be emitted which does not fall within the proscribed grades, and may become annoying on days when the atmosphere is heavy or when the wind is blowing in certain directions. The liberality of the provision with respect to the emission of smoke by locomotives in and about roundhouses has emphasized this characteristic of the law, and has left the Board without any remedy under it in one especially offensive instance. After a careful study of this situation the

Board is convinced that the law in this respect may be made more stringent and still be consistent with the purpose of its framers, to establish requirements which are reasonable and possible of compliance. A specific recommendation to this end is embodied in another part of this report.

The work of the Board has included a persistent effort to educate fuel users to the importance of the law in their own interests and to its workable character. While it has been the purpose and policy of the Board to assist them, so far as may be properly done, in adopting the best methods of complying with its requirements, yet emphasis has been laid on the fact that such assistance in no way relieves those controlling the operation of stacks from its observance. The results so far obtained in diminishing the emission of smoke in the district have been due not merely to the vigilance of the inspectors but to the active co-operation of those interested in the passage of the law, the various organizations of locomotive and stationary engineers and firemen and nearly all of the larger fuel

users.

The Board presents the following summarized comparative statement of this division of its work for the year ending Nov. 30, 1914, and the three preceding years:

1 Estimated. Actual record of only those cases where amount of smoke exceeded that allowed

by the act.