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20
SANITARY POWERS OF THE COMMISSION.
these powers, it may be convenient that I should
submit to you a brief account of them, and I gladly
turn from contemplating the spectacle of preventable
death, to analyse the means of prevention now
vested in you by the Legislature.
1. In regard of public drainage or sewerage, the
first and most elementary condition of endemic
health, I need hardly tell you that within the City,
your powers are absolute. You have entire and
sole responsibility for the construction and maintenance
of sewers, for their cleaning or flushing,
and for the prevention of noxious effluvia from their
innumerable gully-holes.
2. In the all-important particular of housedrainage,
your authority is sufficient for every purpose.
You can order the complete abolition of cesspools
; the construction of drainage in any premises
within fifty feet of a sewer; its repair, cleansing,
or renewal, wherever it may be disordered: and
not only can you order these works to be done,
but—failing the owner's compliance with your
notice, you can devolve the performance of his
duty on your own workmen, and can recover your
expenses from the recusant.
3. In regard of water-supply to houses, your
powers are equally cogent, though the unsatisfactory
condition of the water-trade continues a serious