View report page

xiv
will force their way into private houses through the
drains or even brickwork, and prove more disastrous
in their results than the openings in the street or
even through gullies. I trust,—hoping almost
against hope,—that before this time next year some
individual more ingenious than myself (and I have
exhausted my invention in futile schemes), will
contrive some means of obviating this unfortunately
increasing evil; but I am afraid that it will only be
overcome by the aid of chemistry; I am not at all
sure that the plan of increasing the number of
ventilating gratings would not lessen it, but as the
result is doubtful and the experiment itself attended
with difficulty and considerable expense, I do not
find myself justified in advising the Vestry to adopt
this course.
As last year and previously it will be seen that
the subject of Public Urinals has received considerable
attention at the hands of the Vestry, but more
especially of the Works Committee, who have done
their utmost to face and deal with this most delicate
subject, but as important as it is, necessarily kept
rather in the background; the main difficulty in the
St. James's District is the selection of sites which
shall combine apparent impossibilities, namely,
conspicuousness and invisibility, they should be
unmistakeable and unobjectionable, and there is no
doubt that fifty new ones might have been constructed
with less trouble and care than has been
bestowed by the Works Committee in attempting to