View report page

77
of index; even this I was informed is not reliable. The subject of
drain or sewer being of such vital importance to local authorities, the
plans being continually asked for, and should such plans not be found
among those deposited with local authorities, the officials of the
authorities have to examine the petitions deposited with the Metropolitan
Commissioners of Sewers, which involves a large amount of
time, not only in searching, but in going to the offices of the London
County Council. Moreover a petition may be overlooked which may
be the very one required.
The petitions from 1848 to 1855 are in charge of the Engineer.
The minutes and Court papers, and minutes and papers of the various
Committees, etc., are kept in the Record Office of the Council. The
minutes of the Commissioners are not clearly indexed, and but for
the kind and able assistance of the officers in the Record Office it
would be impossible to make any headway. It is also a question
whether the minutes of the Court (31 volumes) and those of the
General Committee (25 volumes) are entered in detail, as no doubt
the officials in those times did not anticipate the trouble as to sewer
or drain which has arisen at the present day. Even in numerous
instances the locality of the premises mentioned on the petition is not
well defined, and the plan attached very crude,
In the Record Office there is a most important Book, "The
General Order Book," in which are entered the resolutions of the
Court from December, 1847, to November, 1855, within which period
the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers was six times superseded
and six new and differently constituted Commissions were successively
appointed. These short-lived bodies doubtless passed various
resolutions.
There are a number of resolutions relating to combined drainage.
From examination of the records it is possible that the Court, by
11 and 12 Victoria, cap. 112, section 21, delegated certain powers to