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109
throughout the Report. It is again satisfactory to note
that during 1909 in but very few cases (0.2 per cent. of the
total notices served) has it been found necessary to resort
to legal proceedings before the Court in connection with
sanitary work carried out under the Public Health and
Metropolis Management Acts—29 summonses, which resulted
in £3 in penalties and £5 10s. costs, as follow:—
Convictions (penalties) 3, orders (to do the work) 7, closing
order 1, withdrawn (work done) 9, withdrawn (payment of
costs) 5, withdrawn (new summons granted) 1, no order
(agreement come to) 1, and adjourned sine die (pending
another offence) 2.
Combined Drainage.
Many combined drainages have been reconstructed by the
Borough Council during 1909, such drainages being
"sewers," as the direct result of inspections carried cut
by the Inspectors in the course of their daily routine duties.
The law, as it at present stands, throws the responsibility
upon the Borough Council of repairing certain combined
drainages as "sewers," and as the property of the Sanitary
Authority, but a large number of combined drainages are
relaid by private owners as the result of voluntary work or
of the service of notices by Inspectors. In these latter
cases, the owners are either responsible, by virtue of the
Sanitary Authority possessing a plan or application (or
both), in connection with the combined systems of drainage,
or they prefer that the combined drains should be regarded
as "drains" and not as "sewers."
House to House Inspections.
A house to house inspection of the district is a duty laid
upon Sanitary Authorities by section 1 of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, and section 30 of the Housing of the
Working Classes Act, 1890. The duty is an important one,
but such work can only be carried out with a sufficiently