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Inspection.—Towards the end of the year 1895 your Vestry appointed a
male and a female Sanitary Inspector, specially authorised to inspect workshops.
The duties have been so divided that workshops where men are mainly
employed, and bakehouses, fall to the male inspector, and workshops where
women and young persons are mainly employed, and laundries, fall to the
female inspector. The abatement of smoke nuisances also pertains to these
officers, since Sanitary Authorities are empowered to suppress smoke
nuisances and noxious effluvia arising from both factories and workshops.
The Health Department is now in possession of a separate and complete
Register of Bakehouses in St. Pancras, containing full particulars.
A separate Register on similar lines is being prepared for Laundries.
General Registers of other workplaces, where males and where females are
mainly employed are also being compiled.
Bakehouses.—A complete list of bakehouses in St. Pancras in occupation on
January 1st, 1896, is appended to this report. It is to be noted that about
20 per cent. are at or above ground level, and that about 80 per cent. are
below ground level, about 15 per cent. being under seven feet, and about
6.5 per cent. being over seven feet below ground level.
WATER SUPPLY AND WATER SERYICE.
During the year the dissatisfaction with the result of the so-called two
gallon flush for water closets has increased. Recently an inquiry has been
held by the Local Government Board, but this is matter that more properly
belongs to the year 1896, to be reported upon at a future date.
DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE.
House Drains.—During the year, 1,944 house drains were tested, 156
repaired, 119 trapped, 322 ventilated, 224 disconnected from the sewer, 61
reconstructed, 471 new provided, and 7 cesspools abolished.
Combined Drainage.—The question of combined drainage is a very serious
one for Sanitary Authorities and Ratepayers as every combined drain is now
understood to be a sewer maintainable at public expense.
There is no doubt that when the legislature fifty years ago defined a
"drain" as meaning a drain used for the drainage of one building only, it
had in mind to throw upon Public Authorities the maintenance of the brooks,
ditches, and open and closed channels used in common by a number of houses,
but it never occurred to anyone then how easy it would be to convert the drain
of every private house into a sewer, and this position was never contemplated
in the definition made by Parliament.
At present it appears that the law is that every drain of a single private
house which carries even a little surface water from next door becomes a
sewer, maintainable by the Sanitary Authority. Many such trivial alterations
have been made in house drains, and have converted them into sewers. The
only means of preventing such sewers being made at all, and of proving that
Sanitary Authorities are not liable for them if made surreptitiously, is for the
Sanitary Authority to produce the plans of the drains of premises. The