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19
In dealing with house property it is well to bear in mind
that the Metropolis Local Management Act gives opportunity
to the Vestry to enforce far better sanitary arrangements for
houses than they at present have.
The Sanitary Committee have during the year wisely
visited many of the poorest localities of the parish, and have
ascertained for themselves the filthy condition to which the
houses in these districts would soon be reduced, did they not
receive the constant attention of the Sanitary Officers. The
condition of some of the water closets at the time of their
visit will be within the memory of many of the Committee
and it will also be recollected that the flushing of these
closets was dependent solely on the willingness of the inhabitants
ta carry water from the back to the front of the
house in a pail, a duty which it is needless to say was left by
one to another until it was not performed at all.
The question of water supply to water closets has often
been under consideration, and I therefore desire to bring to
the notice of the VeStry the fact that the Water Companies
are at the present time compelling all house owners to provide
such water closets as are supplied with water, with water
waste-preventers, limiting the amount which can flush the
closet at any one time to two gallons.
While the Water Companies' regulations prevent the use of
mitre than two gallons at one time, it is very desirable that
the Vestry should on the other hand limit the amount to not
less than two gallons. Indeed, the opinion is held by competent
authorities that two gallons is not, under all conditions,
sufficient to properly flush the pan and soil pipe.
It is a matter of great importance that the height of the
waste-preventer above the water closet pan and the size of
the supply pipe to the pan should be noted. The West Middlesex
Company limit the internal diameter of the supply
pipe to the pan to not less than ??? inches, but the regulations
of the New River Company place no such limit, and the probability
is that unless the Vestry exercise some control in the
matter of water supply, apparatus will be placed in the
houses which will be altogether inadequate, and which there
will be great difficulty in altering.
One of the regulations of the Water Companies is very
beneficial, viz., that which prevents any waste pipe from a
cistern being in direct communication with a drain. While