View report page

16
neighbourhood, from which it was evident that the
evil was daily increasing. The Clerk was therefore
instructed to write to the Directors of the Company,
urging upon them the necessity of at once
emptying and refilling the Basin, and at the same
time requesting that the Basin should not be
allowed to remain empty longer than necessary,
and that proper precautions should be taken under
the superintendence of the Medical Officer of the
Vestry to avert the prejudicial consequences which
might ensue from the laying bare of so large a
quantity of fetid mud. In support of that requisition
I attended a meeting of the Directors on the
20th of June, when I was informed that their
supply was at that time so abundant as to
enable them to let out the water without inconvenience,
but that they were prevented from doing
so by the objections of the Engineer of the
Metropolitan Board of Works, on the ground that
the works then in progress under his superintendence
would be liable to injury by the flow of
water along the Ranelagh Main Sewer. These
works having been so far completed as to obviate
this difficulty, the water was at length let out on
the 13th of July. Although the mud was exposed
during the whole of the following day, the weather
was cold and very rainy, so that no inconvenience
was experienced. At the east end of the Basin, at
the bend, and opposite the Manure Wharves, the
bed or channel was found to be covered with mud