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water in the well on the premises being found to be contaminated
with sewage, the drains were re-opened, and the matter fully investigated
by a Committee of the Board, and no doubt remaining
but that the work had been very imperfectly done, the Board
resolved thenceforth to take the work into their own hands. The
other change arose out of the drainage of Osborne Place, Blacheath,
of the expense of which great complaints were made by
several of the owners, and a Committee being deputed to inquire
into the subject, reported not only that the charges made for the
work in question could not be maintained, but that the contract
ought at once to be determined. The report was adopted by the
Board, who have, since that time (Nov., 1857), carried out all
private drainage works on the same plan as the frontage drains.
The Board also adopted the view of the Committee as to the impropriety
of some of the charges made for draining Osborne Place, but
as the Contractor has refused to make the required deductions, the
question of the correctness of the charges will probably be determined
by a jury.
Drain pipes are now obtained by the Board at prices 43 per cent.
lower than were paid in the first instance, and the Sewers Surveyor
estimates that the cost to the public of the frontage drains are, on
an average, 30 per cent. lower than they were under the contract
system, and of the private drainage works about 45 per cent,
lower than under the Board's contract for such works.
The number of new houses, of which notices have been given to
the Board, and the plans of drainage submitted for their approval,
from the 1st Jan., 1857, to the 25th March, 1858, have been 143,
and there have been 230 houses (built prior to 1856), drained into
the sewers between the above dates, in obedience to notices issued
by the Board. Eighteen houses have also been drained by the
Board, on the default of the owners and at their expense, which
number, it will be seen, is a great reduction upon that of the first
year, and it is with pleasure that the Board acknowledge the
increased readiness with which their orders are complied by the
public—only one instance having occurred of their having been met
by a pertinacious defiance of their authority, which was by the owner
of the Duke of Cambridge Beer-house, near Lewisham Bridge, who
refused to allow the drainage of the adjoining houses, called Shepherd's
Place, to be carried through his premises, and laid down
drains which were inconsistent with such a plan. The Board were,
therefore, obliged to have recourse to the remedy given under the
77th section of the Act, and a penalty of £50 was imposed on the
owner of the premises, but on his subsequent compliance with the
order of the Board, the penalty was, with their consent and on
payment of all costs, reduced to a merely nominal amount. In
another case, an order was made by the Board for the drainage of