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109
injurious to health, is upon the Council, under section 135
of the Act of 1855. Power is given to the Vestry, but
only with the consent of, and after notice to the Council,
to prevent effluvia from exhaling from main sewers
(Metropolis Local Management Act, 1862, sec. 27), and in
respect of these sewers we advise that the Council are
liable for nuisance and not the Vestry.'
" The Committee, therefore, state that the Vestry may—
'Upon a flagrant case of nuisance being proved,
through the Attorney-General proceed against the Council
by information, or in the alternative apply for a mandamus
to compel the Council to comply with section 135 (of the
Act of 1855) above referred to.'
" This being the state of the law, the Vestry will, doubtless
when occasion shall arise, discharge their statutory duty in
regard to the matter dealt with in my first recommendation.
" With regard to the steps to be taken forgiving effect to
the second recommendation, your Committee will, doubtless,
be guided by the opinion expressed by the Surveyor, par. 23
of his report (page 19), so as to proceed very cautiously in
closing offensive ventilators connected with main line sewers
under the control of the County Conncil ; but obviously such
closure would not be made without provision of an alternative
method of ventilation, viz., by a shaft, as indicated in the first
of my recommendations, a course which, I apprehend, would
obviate the danger to which the Surveyor somewhat vaguely
refers in the closing words of his report.
" Before leaving this portion of the subject, I may refer to
the special need that exists for carrying out the provisions of
the law in connection with gullies and ventilating openings in
mews—a matter of considerable importance, having regard to
the general narrowness of the roadway, and to the fact that
the roadway is usually the playground of the children who