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8
All the fittings at present in use in the metropolis must to a great extent
be repaired, renovated, and placed in situations where they will be readily
accessible to the Companies' Inspectors. New and stronger pipes, of lead,
must be put in, and the pipes, fittings, and even the plumber to put in the
fittings, must have the Companies' approval. No overflow or waste pipe,
other than a " warning pipe " will be permitted, and all water closets are to
have proper waste preventing apparatus.
In a sanitary point of view many of the provisions of the proposed
regulations are excellent. All butts are to be abolished, and proper cisterns,
maintained watertight, properly covered, and placed in such positions that
they may be conveniently inspected and cleansed, are to be substituted. No
pipe is to be laid through, in, or into any drain, ashpit, sink, manure-hole,
or other place where the water is liable to become fouled. No cistern buried
or excavated in the ground is to be used for the storage or reception of
water without a written permission of the Water Company, a permission
which, I hope, will, in the interests of the public health, rarely be granted.
The supply pipe for water to a water closet is not to communicate with any
apparatus connected with the closet, except the cistern.
In certain cases where houses in the occupation of weekly tenants are of
such limited accommodation as not, in the opinion of the Medical Officer,
to admit of the erection in connexion with them of any proper receptacle for
water without risk to health, cisterns may be dispensed with, and a group
of houses be supplied from an outside standpipe.
An excellent provision is that every supply pipe shall in every situation
be properly protected from frost.
The penalties for defective fittings and violation of the regulations are
sharp,—a £5 fine, and liability to have the water cut off. In this latter
event the Company must report the fact to the Vestry, whose duty it will
be to take proceedings against the owner or occupier of the premises. A
house without water, it is expressly enacted, is prima facie a nuisance and
unfit for human habitation, and is to be closed accordingly. Should the
Vestry make default in doing its duty, the Chief Officer of Police may, under
the direction of a Secretary of State, institute proceedings under the
Sanitary Act, 1866.
Some such summary powers are necessary with a constant water supply,
not only for the prevention of waste, but also to guard against the injury to
house property by the overflow of cisterns and the bursting of defective
pipes. I trust that a good code of regulations may receive the sanction of
of the Board of Trade, and that they will be enforced with forbearance at
the outset. Doubtless in a short time, when all is brought into harmonious
action, the results will be most beneficial, especially to the poorer classes of
the parishioners.
SLAUGHTEE-HOUSES.
These appear to have been on the whole well kept, and but few complaints
have been made of them. There are 87 licensed slaughter-houses in the
parish.
Throughout the metropolis, butchers and others are now agitating for a
repeal of the clause (s. 55) of the Metropolitan Building Act, 1844, which
will, in August, 1874, render it illegal to have any private licensed slaughter