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exposed for examination when the sanitary inspector has been convinced
of its defective condition; nor have they wished at any time
to throw the cost of the reconstruction of combined drains upon the
shoulders of the Council. It says much for the care and ability of
the sanitary inspectors that in all the drains asked by them to be
uncovered in no case has the owner been in a position to recover
damages against the Council for wrongful opening.
With regard to the drain testing by a chemical test, this is of a
most uncertain character, and is governed by the nature of the
subsoil, the absence of an intercepter, and especially by the condition
of the atmosphere at the time. Drains that have been tested
in this way with a negative result have been found, when uncovered,
to be broken and defective and the surrounding subsoil saturated
with sewage.
Lord Llangattock's property has unfortunately not progressed in
the same active way towards improvement as has been the case with
that of other owners. There is still on Lord Llangattock's estate a
large number of old houses with very defective drainage. In regard
to these old houses which have been in the hands of Lord Llangattock
for some years, and many of which have been examined by the
sanitary inspector and seen by Mr. Long and myself during the
present year, a large proportion of them had the drains defective.
In one street (Trafalgar Street) of more than a hundred houses I
have strong reasons to attribute an outbreak of Enteric Fever, which
occurred this summer, to the contaminated condition of the subsoil
arising from leaky drains. In this particular street 120 houses were
inspected ; the drains of 58 houses were uncovered, with the result
that 36 of them were found very defective. In only three of the
houses in which the drains were so defective did the chemical test
reveal the condition of affairs. The uncovering of the drains under
Section 40 of the Public Health Act was necessary in order to discover
their actual condition. Such is the state of the drains in a
portion of this street that I have directed the inspector not to have
any drain reconstruction carried out until winter has commenced, as
I feel sure, should the ground be disturbed in the autumn an epidemic
of Enteric Fever would ensue. In the uncovering of a drain our
practice is to dig a trench about six feet in length in order that at
least two joints of the drain can be exposed, the condition of these
two joints is taken as a sample of the rest. It is not our practice in
any way to break into the drain or damage the joints, the ground is
generally filled in on the same day and the surface made good. No
damage being done to the drain.