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action should be taken to avail ourselves of this increased privilege, by
which most excellent results may fairly be anticipated. It is not, however,
solely to deficient drainage that sickness prevails to a serious extent
in some parts of the district; it is in some instances to the gross
and criminal neglect of the owners of property that the origin of
disease may be traced, its course and ravages pointed out. As an illustration,
I point to Meridian-place, Dockhead, a court occupied by
decent cleanly and hard-working people, who are suffering from a
deprivation of the first necessary of life and health—water; in consequence
not of a deficient supply, for there is evidence in the softened
saturated condition of the small plots of ground in the rear, of great
waste of water, and there are no receptacles furnished by the owner.
It is quite lamentable to notice the shifts to which the poor people in
this crowded court are put. In some instances the sink stone is
stopped, so that a small pool or puddle might remain to get a supply
from; others have an earthen pan, butter firkin, or leaky pork tub;
but with scarcely an exception there was no proper provision made.
On the eastern side of the court there are open offensive cesspools, contaminating
the atmosphere, and rendering the houses unhealthy and
unendurable. On the western side they have been abolished and pans
substituted. The improvement, notwithstanding the deficiency of water,
was undeniable; indeed, there is here evidence of what I have before
noticed with satisfaction, that great care prevails in keeping the pans
in a state of cleanliness, and the advantage over the old system was
thoroughly valued and appreciated by the occupiers of the houses.
I think it most advisable that some system or regulation should be
come to by which the water supply to places such as I have faintly
described may be improved; and as this is so essential to the health
of the poor, and to sanitary amelioration generally, I venture to urge
upon the Board the exercise of their full powers on this important
subject.
After considerable investigation, I became more and more convinced
that much of the irregularity in the water supply is owing, not to any
fault of the Water Company, but to the incompleteness or imperfection
of the water receptacles and fittings.
In my report, dated the 6th inst., I expressed an opinion that the
outbreak of Scarlatina in Brewer's Yard was traceable to the foul
emanations from cesspools in West Lane. Several deaths had occurred,
much sickness, and much sorrow; all, humanly speaking, preventible.
Your Inspector has reported to me this day, that nothing has been
done to carry out the order of the Board, and I intreat the Vestry to
suffer no further evasion or delay in the completion of necessary works
for abolishing a foul and dangerous nuisance. There is a house in
John's Place, Parker's Row, in which the outbreak of disease may be
considered imminent, in consequence of exhalations proceeding from an
enormous cesspool, into which they all drain in common. This is a
case requiring the attention of the Vestry, as in and near this place, on
former occasions, cholera and fever have prevailed.
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