View report page

16
the receipt, in February last, of a communication from the
Incorporated Association of Municipal and County Engineers,
wrote to the London County Council expressing concurrence
with the object which the Association had in view, viz., to induce
the Council to take steps to procure an amendment of the law
regarding the definition of the words "sewer" and "drain" in
the Metropolis Management Acts. In June, a letter was received
from the Council stating that a bill had been prepared, but
suggesting that the object which the local authorities desired to
see given effect to might, without emendation of the definition,
be attained by adding after the words "district board" the words
"or constructed at the expense of the owner without such order."
The suggestion did not, however, meet with general concurrence,
most of the local authorities being of the opinion that it would
be impossible in many cases to prove that a combined drain
had been constructed at the expense of the owner. Several
meetings of the conference have since been held and the draft
bill is now under consideration by the delegates.
THE UNEMPLOYED.
In February a circular was received from the Local Government
Board, referring to the scarcity of employment which
existed in many parts of the country, aggravated as it was then
stated to be by the protracted frost; urging local authorities to
mitigate the distress by providing work for the classes who do not
ordinarily have recourse to Boards of Guardians for relief, and
suggesting various kinds of work which the Local Government
Board considered would be of a suitable description for the relief
of the distress. Suggesting also co-operation between the local
authorities and the Boards of Guardians of the Poor, and terminating
with a reiteration of the assurance made in a former circular that
when the works undertaken were of such a character that the expense
might properly be defrayed out of borrowed moneys, the local
authorities might rely that their applications for sanction to loans
would be promptly dealt with.
The circular, which was of a similar description to that
received in previous years, was, together with a suggestion that
a register of the unemployed should be kept at the Board's
Offices, referred to the Paving and General Purposes Committee ,
and the Committee, after careful consideration, reported their
views on the subjects of reference to the Board in the terms
following:—
REPORT OF PAVING AND GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE.
"1. We have considered the reference respecting the desirability
of keeping a Register of the Unemployed at the offices of this