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109
assistance will have to be provided or a further special department
created. I hesitate at the present moment to
suggest how the difficulty will have to be met. The difficulty,
however, is certain to arise; but I think it better to
wait, and to propose the remedy when the exact nature of
the difficulty to be met becomes apparent. But the new
work is so important and far reaching, and its importance
will gradually become so manifest, that I feel sure that in
the course of time the Vestry will provide an adequate staff
for its efficient performance.
I may add here that, necessary and important as the
supervision and arrangement of the drainage works of new
houses certainly are, the gradual reconstruction of the
drainage of houses already built is at least as necessary and
important, and is even more difficult. For the Sanitary
Authority have no power to compel the examination of
underground drains unless they give evidence of being out
of order by creating a nuisance; and generally where such
a nuisance exists, and the drains are examined, they prove
to be altogether faulty, so that not only has new drainage
probably on a new system to be carried out, but the defective
drainage has to be wholly, or to a large extent, abolished
and removed.
I append to this report (see Appendix) the regulations
which are now furnished to builders, and which will henceforth
guide us both in carrying out the drainage of new
houses, and in reconstructing when necessary the drainage
of houses already built. The principles which have guided
us in the framing of our regulations are mainly as
follows:—1st, that there shall be a ready and efficient
discharge of soil, slops and waste water into the public