View report page

13
good work continued year by year, for I feel sure it is a step in
the right direction. Prevention is said to be better than cure.
By a system of automatic flushing no solid matter is allowed to
remain long enough in a sewer to ferment and generate gas,
and moreover, at every discharge of water from a tank, the air
in the sewer is forced out and a fresh supply is drawn in consequently
a complete system of flushing is a great aid to thorough
ventilation. I should like to see the system adopted in house
drains, and for every house to have its automatic flushing tank.
I know there would be an outcry about the cost of the water
used; but surely in a question concerning health, expense
should be a secondary consideration. My experience leads me
to believe that house drains generally are far more defective than
the public sewers. During the year a good deal of flushing was
done through the manholes and gullies, by means of water carts,
and the following quantities of disinfectants used in doing this :
Permanganate of Potash 12 cwts.
Sanitas Powder 7 tons.
Jeyes' Perfect Purifier 140 gallons.
Carbolic Acid 30 ,,
Carbolic Powder 1 ton.
The cost of these disinfectants was about £189. I cannot
report that the temperature of the water in the Perry Yale and
Church Vale Sewers was any lower than last year. The thermometers
in these sewers were read 1,326 times, and a good deal
of correspondence took place with the Forest Hill Brewery
Company upon the subject. The coke fires in the large ventilatiug
shaft of Ivy Lane Sewer was continued throughout the
year, and with the same satisfactory results. The whole of the
sewers have been periodically cleansed and inspected, and I do
not hesitate to say they are much improved. I cannot help
thinking the favourable death rate of the District testifies as to
this. The work of cleaning and flushing the Sewers is not seen
by the public, and very few know what is really done.
RECREATION GROUNDS.
The Penge Ground was completed during the year; but as
I went rather fully into the matter in my last year's report I do
not think I need say anything further.