View report page

HOUSE-DRAINAGE. 17
Everything, however, in this respect will depend
on the spirit of thoroughness with which the Act
of Parliament is enforced; and I would strongly
recommend, in all cases of non-drainage or other
non-compliance with the terms of notice, that no
indulgence whatever should be conceded to landlords
beyond the time specified in the notification
of the Court; that no difference should be recognised
between a 'notice' and 'a peremptory notice
that all notices should be 'peremptory,' and that, a
certain period for performance having been allowed
to the landlord, on the very day of that period's
expiration, the work, if undone, should be given
over for completion by the workmen of the Commissioners
of Sewers, in accordance with the 61st
clause of the Act of Parliament. In favour of the
adoption of this principle, I can adduce no stronger
argument than my conviction, that its non-adoption
would insure a sacrifice of human life, in exact
proportion to the procrastination allowed; and
that, too, in a matter where henceforth your responsibility
is undivided and your power absolute.
In order to give efficiency to whatever improvements
of house-drainage may be instituted,
the present system of water-supply will require to
undergo very extensive modifications; for at present
in the poorer tenements, even where some show of
house drainage is made, the arrangements are
constantly rendered inoperative from insufficiency
c