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11
they can adjudge. It will of course be necessary, if these bye-laws
are adopted, to appoint an Assistant Inspector. Your present
Inspector has a great amount of work in looking after new buildings—work
that, though not very arduous, occupies a great deal of
time. When it is remembered that there are over 30 miles of
streets in the Borough, of which nearly 20 are occupied by members
of the working classes, it is clear that one man cannot thoroughly
inspect them. In nearly every street of this character one
finds houses dirty and overcrowded, as they come under notice
accidentally; and were a house to house inspection made no doubt
others would be discovered.
SEWAGE TREATMENT.
The question of sewage treatment has long engrossed your
attention, and considering the difficulties, both of the subject itself
and those arising from the position of the Works, great progress
has been made towards a final solution of the problems. In
accordance with your request I have endeavoured to make myself
acquainted with the latest methods of sewage treatment, and have
visited many experimental Works, on some of which I
have reported to you already.
The problems at present before you are two: (I.) A pure
effluent that will satisfy the Thames Conservancy; (II.) Absence
of nuisance arising from the process at the Works.
I.— The effluent at present turned into the river does not
satisfy the Thames Conservancy, and it is therefore proposed
to further purify it by artificial filtration.
It must not be supposed that sewage filtration is merely
mechanical in its action, or that effluent can be materially improved
by running it in cascades, fountains, etc. A mechanical filter is
soon clogged up by sewage effluent unless worked in such a way
as to promote the cultivation of the bacteria which become deposited
on the filtering material.