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115
the owners of the houses drained, in common, thereby. Cases
are not unknown in which a sanitary authority have failed
to abate nuisances, after the refusal of the owners of houses
to comply with notices requiring them to execute work which,
in the present unsatisfactory and even inequitable state of the
law, has been held by the highest legal authorities to be the
duty of the sanitary authority.
DRAINAGE BYE-LAWS.
Towards the close of the year 1896 the County Council
transmitted for the information of the Sanitary Authorities draft
bye-laws prepared under section 202 of the Metropolis
Management Act, 1855, asking that observations thereon
(if any), might be made by 16th January, 1897. The Local
Government Board were requested to withhold their confirmation
of the bye-laws until the Local Authorities, who will be
charged with the enforcement of the same, should have had an
opportunity of considering them and submitting their representations
to the Board and Council thereon. The time was
extended accordingly. The matter received much attention,
from the Sanitary Committee, and in the result numerous
recommendations and suggestions for amendment of the
proposed bye-laws were made, and embodied in a report,
which, being approved by your Vestry, was duly forwarded to
the Board and the Council. At the end of the year the
bye-laws had not been confirmed by the Board.
FLOODING OF BASEMENTS.
In times of heavy rain the sewers in certain parts
of the parish have proved occasionally unable to carry
off the storm water, owing to the insufficiency of the
main line sewers, thus leading to flooding of the basements
of many houses with more or less diluted sewage.
This matter has received attention from the Sanitary Committee
at various times, over a long period of years. It
formed last year the subject of a conference with the sanitary