View report page

21
report to a Works Committee on a matter which had already
been before a Public Health Committee and on which
definite action had been recommended and. approved by the
Council.
The Council made no comment on this report, but
discussed a letter received from the builder on this matter.
These drains were eventually relaid as required.
Later, I presented another special report to the Council
on the "Administration, Supervision and Enforcement of
Drainage Bye-laws," in which I pointed out that the general
question of the drainage matters had given rise to considerable
friction with regard to myself. Pointing out how
it had reached a climax with regard to Elgin Road drainage,
where every endeavour was made to support the Surveyor
and the builder, although they were the real authors of the
whole trouble in that the drains had not originally been
laid in accordance with the bye-laws. That various statements,
both within and without the Council, with regard
to this matters required correction. That in a district like
this, with a large number of individual owners, the enforcement
or non-enforcement of the bye-laws becomes a matter
of great importance. That it is at the present the duty
of the Surveyor to supervise the drainage of new buildings,
and that afterwards all re-drainage works come under the
Public Health Department. That of 277 houses during the
last three years where a drainage nuisance was believed to
exist and a notice had been served to open up the drains
for inspection, 277, or 100 per cent. had been found in a
defective condition and required re-drainage. That all these
drainage defects had been found on complaint or arising
out of visits for infectious disease. No systematic testing
of drains where infectious disease occurs having been
carried out as is done in some districts. That in the past