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recommended, and the Council resolved:—
"(a) That a register be kept accordingly.
"(b) That in any case of underground rooms or cellars, occupied as
dwellings, reported by a District Surveyor, in which a local authority
fails to take action, the Council, after notifying its intention to the
local authority, shall, by its solicitor, take the necessary legal steps to
obtain a conviction.
"(c) That every District Surveyor be required to make a quarterly instead
of a half-yearly return of all underground rooms or cellars occupied as
dwellings in his district."
Theoretically, of course, the Council are correct in saying,
as above stated, that "no discretion is conferred upon them by
the statute in dealing with cases in which it is found that the law
is not being duly observed." But "discretion" in another sense
might reasonably be exercised, seeing that, practically, in many
of the cases of underground rooms, as defined by the statute, no
harm would come from their being "occupied as dwellings;'' and
that not being "separately" occupied as dwellings—very many of
such rooms, not coming within the cognisance of the law—are
lived in without, so far as appears, any detriment to health.
THE METROPOLITAN SEWAGE QUESTION.
In my annual reports for 1885 and 1886, I referred,
under the beading "Metropolitan Main Drainage," to the steps
taken by the late Metropolitan Board of Works to clarify and
deodorize the sewage of the Metropolis before its discharge into
the river, well-founded complaints having been made with regard
to the condition of the river resulting from the introduction of
enormous volumes of crude sewage.
For the purpose of clarification, or precipitation of the solid
matters, lime and green vitriol were employed, supplemented by
the addition of manganate of soda and sulphuric acid to the
effluent when necessary. These last-named materials, however,
were alleged to be unnecessary when the river water and the