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127
This recommendation was adopted by your Vestry, and a
similar direction was given last year. It would be well, however,
to authorise the Surveyor to do whatever may be
necessary in regard to these matters, at all times, so as to
avoid the delay involved in a -reference to the Committee.
The annoyance caused by untrapped gullies, and sewer ventilating
openings also, should not be suffered. Nor would it be
if Sanitary Authorities gave effect to the provisions of section
7, of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, which reads as
follows:—
44 Every District Board and Vestry shall, by providing proper traps
or other coverings, or by ventilation, or by such other ways and means
as shall ha practicable for that purposa, prevent the effluvia of sewers
from exhaling through gully-holes, gratings, and other opeuings of
sewers in any of the streets or other places within their district *or
parish."
Such exhalations or effluvia constitute an undoubted
nuisance, and they are not merely dangerous to health but
injurious also. It is surprising that individuals affected by
the disgusting smells do not seek the available remedy, by
making complaint of the nuisance to a justice, under the
provisions of section 12 of the Public Health (London) Act,
1891, which reads as follows—
" Complaint of the existence of a nuisance liable to be dealt wit h
summarily under this Act, on any premises* within the district of any
sanitary authority, may be made by any person, and thereupon the
like proceedings shall be had with the like incidents and consequences
as to the making of orders, fines for the disobedience of orders, appeal,
and otherwise, as in the case of a like complaint of the sanitary
authority."
Naturally, the complaints are commonly addressed to me,
but all I can do is to inform the complainants that I have
referred their grievances to the Surveyor. For remedy of the
* ' The expression " premises " includes .... lands .... of
any tenure, whether open or enclosed, whether built on or not, and whether
public or private, and whether maintained or not under statutory authority.'
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, section 141. (" Interpretation.")