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them, and we are of opinion that, in the rest, steps for the
attainment of the same subject should be taken without delay.
We are aware that all sewage farms and sewage works are
liable, through carelessness or accident, to do their work at
times with less than proper efficiency, For the purpose of
keeping them up to a sufficient standard frequent inspection by
an authority appointed for the purpose is, in our opinion,
absolutely necessary.
In the Thames Basin not only the River Conservancy, but
the County Councils and the Sanitary Authorities have the
power of putting the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act into
operation. The Sanitary Authorities, however, speaking
generally, do not appear to consider such action to be any part
of their duty, unless the pollution be such as to affect the health
of their own limited district; and both Sanitary Authorities and
County Councils have hitherto practically left the matter to the
Conservancy—the Councils, as one of their Chairmen told us,
being “very desirous to avoid anything like friction with a body
which has concurrent jurisdiction with ourselves,” and the
Sanitary Authorities pleading that “The Thames Conservancy
are paid for doing a great deal of this work.” Some of the
County Councils appear, however, to recognise their obligation,
for the Chairman of the Sanitary Committee of the Surrey
Council informed us that they “hold it distinctly to be their
duty to carry out the provisions of the Rivers Pollution Act, and
that you may rely that Surrey will take up that work, and that
it will have the full support, certainly of Middlesex and London,
and probably of every County Council in the district, in keeping
the river as pure as it is no.v, and I should hope much purer.”
It appears that in the Lea Valley the only body upon which
devolves the duty of seeing that this Act is enforced is the Lea
Conservancy Board, to which this power is given exclusively by
the 9th Section of the Rivers Pollution Act, 1878. As regards
the Thames Conservancy Board, its effectual action is hindered
by several causes. In the first place, its jurisdiction over the