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owners should be held responsible for their maintenance." The Committee further came to the
conclusion that "the Council, as the central authority, should promote legislation in accordance with
the views of the local authorities," and upon their recommendation it was resolved —
"That the Council do apply to Parliament for an amendment of the definition of the word
sewer and drain in the Metropolis Local Management Act, in the way desired by the local
authorities, and that it be referred to the Parliamentary Committee to prepare a Public Bill, and
take such other steps as may be necessary for that purpose."
Such a Bill ("Metropolitan Sewers and Drains") was brought in, on behalf of the Council, in
1896, but it did not become law. The subject is one deserving of further attention, and having
regard to the large interests involved, it would seem desirable that the Borough Councils should take
joint action to promote legislation, as the County Council will take no further action in the matter,
and the Local Government Board do not seem inclined to deal with it. The subject was brought
to the attention of the Sanitary Authorities in 1905, by the Battersea Borough Council, who stated
that the President of the Board had expressed the opinion that it was unnecessary to trouble a proposed
deputation to wait upon him with regard to it. In accordance with the suggestion of the
Battersea Council, and upon the recommendation of the Public Health Committee, the Council
addressed a communication to the Board, pointing out that, owing to the present unsatisfactory
state of the law with regard to combined drainage, the Borough Councils throughout the Metropolis
are now frequently called upon to carry out, at the public expense, works of reparation and
reconstruction tending solely to improve the private property of the individual owner, at a great
and constantly increasing cost to the ratepayers, and urging him to do all in his power to remedy, by
early legislation, the injustice at present suffered. Nothing came of the action taken.
A Conference of Metropolitan Sanitary Authorities, convened by the St. Pancras Borough
Council, for the consideration of the subject, was held on the 24th June last, at which the following
resolutions were passed:—
(a) That every effort should be made by the Metropolitan Sanitary Authorities to relieve the
ratepayers from the heavy, inequitable and accumulatiug burden of the maintenance of
combined drains originally laid as drains and not approved as sewers.
(b) That it be referred to a Committee of this Conference to prepare for presentation to the
President of the Local Government Board a Petition or draft Bill dealing with the law
relating to Combined Drainage.
A Committee, consisting of eleven delegates, was thereupon formed, the three representatives
of Kensington, viz., Councillor J. V. Vesey-Fitzgerald, K.C., (Chairman of the Conference) the Town
Clerk, and the Borough Engineer being appointed to serve thereon.
The Public Health Committee, in their report submitting the resolutions of the Conference,
expressed the hope "that the further representations which it is proposed to make to the President
of the Local Government Board, may have the desired effect, and that legislation may very shortly
be introduced which may provide a satisfactory solution of the difficulties with which Metropolitan
Local Authorities have at present to contend, owing to the anomalous state of the law bearing upon
the subject."
A further meeting of the Conference was held on the 6th December, 1907, when a Bill "to
amend the Metropolis Management Acts with respect to Sewers and Drains" was unanimously
adopted: it is adapted for the purposes of London from the section of a West Ham Corporation
Act. "This course was thought advisable because, in the first place, the operation of this Section
in West Ham has proved successful, and secondly, because it was believed that, by following
existing legislation, Parliament would be more ready to extend powers to London."* The Bill,
i am informed (April '27th, 1907) "has been before the House of Commons for second
reading for some time." Twenty Boroughs have addressed communications to the President
of the Local Government Board "impressing upon him the desirability of the Government
taking charge of the Bill, or granting facilities for its passage into law during the present
Session of Parliament." There would appear to be reason to hope that the President will be
influenced by the representations made, and will decide to take charge of the Bill—but after the
many disappointments of the last twelve years—since the London County Council introduced into
the House of Commons the first Public Bill, in 1896, one does not like to be too sanguine.
* "Combined Drainage: A Review of Attempted Reforms," by Alfred Powel Coke, Chief Clerk St. Pancras Public
Health Department, Honorary Secretary to St. Pancras Conference.