View report page

92
express my indebtedness to the various officers for their
co-operation and assistance in this portion of the work of
the Public Health Department.
In recent times it has been necessary to define more
particularly the relationship of the Inspector of Nuisances to
the other Sanitary Inspectors. If good work is to result, it
is obviously necessary for one man to be responsible for one
job. There has been a tendency to make the Inspector of
Nuisances an independent officer, but there is no getting
away from the fact that he is a part of the Public Health
Department, and as part of a corporate whole he can only
take a valuable but subordinate position to the Medical
Officer of Health. In practice this is of course quite recognised,
but the time has arrived when it should be completely
defined.
DRAINAGE.
There has been a considerable amount of trouble during
the past year or more over this matter, and I have found
it necessary to take the control into my own hands. In the
past, it is an acknowledged fact now, that the bye-laws have
not been enforced, and it has been found that all the drains
which have been opened up under Section 52 of the Ilford
Improvement Act, 1898, have been found to be defective.
This is a serious matter, and will be likely to be more so in
the future; therefore I have presented various special reports
on the subject to the Council. In whatever manner a drain is
laid, even if on made-up soil, it takes a few years before any
obvious result ensues, but I am afraid the Council is just
beginning to reap the fruit of the abrogation of the bye-law
with regard to the laying of concrete under drains. However
virgin the soil, it is obviously common sense that there must
be a firm bed for a drain to rest on, which was provided for
by the bye-law on the subject passed in 1892, and the