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houses, and the reconstruction of the drains of houses
already built, which you adopted on the 22nd May, 1889,
on the recommendation of the Surveyor and myself, have
come into force, and that consequently the Inspectors' time
has, during the last 10 months, been largely given to work
of this nature.
"This is a subject which I discussed fully in my last
annual Report, and which I shall not now rediscuss. All I
need say is, that the work is of a most important character;
that until the Spring of last year it belonged to no official
of the Vestry to take the matter in hand, and had been
absolutely neglected to the serious detriment of the Parish;
that the work is one which very few Metropolitan Parishes
have down to the present time taken seriously in hand;
and that, so far as I know, ours is the only Parish in which
it has been devolved on the Sanitary Inspectors, or the
officers, that is to say, whose training, knowledge, and special
sanitary duties make them best fitted to discharge such a
function, and to carry it out successfully. During the last
year in 452 cases, either new buildings have been drained,
and their sanitary arrangements carried out, according to
the directions of the Surveyor and myself, and under the
immediate supervision of the Sanitary Inspectors; or there
has been a total reconstruction of the drainage and other
sanitary arrangements of houses already built. I need
scarcely say that the duties here spoken of have proved, as
was expected, very difficult and very exacting; for they
have demanded, first of all, the careful consideration of
plans of drainage; second, frequent visits of the Inspectors
to works in progress; third, frequent testing of drains; and,
lastly, not unfrequent conflicts of opinion between the
Vestry officials on the one hand, and landlords, architects,