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1844, and created the Vestries and District Boards of Works to
replace the large number of local bodies administering local affairs
in the Metropolis. The dismerit of the Metropolitan Board of Works
lay in the system of indirect election by the Vestries and District
Boards, the absence of control over the latter bodies and the serious
corruption which negatived any reasonable means of supervision.
In 1888 the Metropolitan Board of Works was disbanded and
replaced by the London County Council whilst in place of the twentythree
Vestries and fifteen District Boards of Works, the twenty-eight
newly created Metropolitan Borough Councils were substituted in
1899 to make uniform and comprehensive the local government
administration of London. Separate sanitary authorities were maintained
for the Inner and Middle Temples and for the City of London
where the Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council were to be the local
sanitary authority. The principal statutes prescribing the duties of
these London Authorities were the Metropolis Local Management
Act, 1855. The Metropolitan Building Act, 1855. The Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, The London Government Act, 1899, The Public
Health (London) Act, 1936, The London Government Act, 1939. The
Royal Commission on London Government appointed in 1894, in its
Report of 1895 recommended that the local government of London be
entrusted to one authority; that the City of London be abolished and
the remaining local authorities be strengthened and made autonomous
but the resultant Act of 1899 left the City Corporation within the
hierarchy of London Government. The City of London Corporation
district has been defined as consisting of "Those parts of London
formerly within the jurisdiction of and exercised by the Court of
Common Council" and the sanitary and health duties are discharged
by the Improvements, Town Planning, Streets and Public Health
Committees."
(i) WATER SUPPLY. — The district is served by the Metropolitan
Water Board and South Essex Waterworks Co. The subject of the water
supply of the Borough was dealt with at length in the Report for 1945.
Dr. E. Windle Taylor, Director of Water Examination of the Metropolitan
Water Board, has kindly supplied me with the following
information.
"The water supplied to the Ilford area by the Board is wellderived
water from Wanstead well and River Lee-derived water from
Lee Bridge Works in varying and unpredictable proportions."
The fluoride content of these supplies is as follows:—