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47
tributary streams is limited to a distance of ten miles from the
main river, so that any pollution may occur higher up with
perfect impunity. Secondly, it is evident that no really satisfactory
supervision can be exercised over several hundreds of
miles of waterway without a considerable staff of inspectors;
and the staff which the Conservancy at present maintains, which
consists of two Chief Inspectors, two Assistant Inspectors and
four River Keepers, appears to us to be utterly inadequate for
the purpose, especially when it is borne in mind that these
officials have other duties to perform besides that of inspection.
The small size of the inspecting staff appears not to be due to
any unwillingness on the part of the Conservancy to perform
their duty, but to the limited funds at their disposal. A third
hindrance to the effectual action of the Conservancy is caused
by the very cumbrous procedure they have to adopt when they
come to deal with a recalcitrant offender. It is true that the
procedure under the Conservancy Acts is not so cumbrous as
under the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act. Still, even under
these, it appears that, when a pollution has been discovered,
twelve months' notice must be given before any further steps
can be taken, and that even then the difficulties and delays are
by no means exhausted. Such abatements of pollution as the
Conservancy have been able to obtain have been rather by
gentle persuasion than by legal proceedings; but “they believe
that, if the Acts were simplified, and the action of them made
more expeditious, they could entirely stop the pollutions throughout
the whole district.”
In this expression of opinion on the part of the Conservancy
Board, as also in their further suggestion that their powers
should not be limited to a distance of ten miles from the main
river, but should be extended to the whole course of the
tributaries, and that it should be made an offence to pollute a
tributary, we fully concur, whilst we would add the further
recommendation already mentioned by us that the staff engaged
in inspection should be very considerably increased—the