The Press.
London, England, 1855-06-02 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

Letters from St. Petersburg of the 18th ult. state
that it has become highly probable that a meeting
will shortly take place between the Czar Alexander IL
and the King of Prussia.
The Governor-General of the capital has issued
orders that no one is to visit Cronstadt, except pro-
vided with the permission of the superior authorities
expressed in writing.
The Emperor Alexander has announced that as a
great portion of the Tartar population in the Crimea
have given their assistance to the allied armies, their
property shall after the war be divided among the
Greek volunteers.
The Hamburg Correspondent contains aletter from
Warsaw of the 23rd ult., which says :
The very alight hopes entertained of the re.establish
ment of peace have been very disadvantageous to the quo.
talons of the Russian loan of 50,000,000/. Yesterday it fell
from 99 to 91, and to-day it is still lower, without finding
purchasers.

I

518

Corrtsponttnct.

METROPOLIS LOCAL MANAGEMENT BILL.
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."

Sir,—ln my former letter it was shown that the
late Metropolitan Commission of Sewers fully ap-
proved and adopted a plan for the arterial draining
of the metropolis on the 20th October, 1853. It was
laid before the House of Commons by four parlia-
mentary papers—being (1854), No. 84, p. 14-28 ;
No. 180, p. 152; No. 376; and No. 394—and, for the
purpose of commencing its construction, the Com-
mission resolved, on the sth September, 1854 :
That the requisite steps be immediately taken for raising
a further sum of 300,0001., for which powers have been
given by the act of last session, and that negotiations be
entered into for the purchase of land, and that steps be
taken for proceeding with the main drainage works imme-
diately that the said sum of money is obtained.
The land required being at Deptford and at Hack-
ney, both within the limits of their act, it was quite
competent for the Commission to make the purchase
by "negotiations," and failing to secure the land on
equitable terms a short act of Parliament could
easily have been obtained.
These works, estimated to cost 1,050,0001., will
increase the necessity for the remaining portion of
the late Commissioners' schemes, the total cost of
which is estimated by their consulting engineer
at 3,000,0001.
Three questions naturally present themselves :-
1. Is the General Board to be constituted by the
Metropolis Local Management Bill, and to be in-
trusted with the permission of constructing these
works, likely to incur such an expenditure of the
ratepayers', their constituents, money?
2. Are the works represented by 1,050,0001. right
or wrong ?
3. Is there any other plan for accomplishing the
same object at a less formidable expense ?
By way of reply it is submitted that:-
1. If 3,000,0001. be raised at four and a half per
cent —the rate recently paid by the city of London—
and the amount be repaid within twenty-five years,
then the annual charge will be 202,3171., or a total
payment of 5,057,9251.
A very large majority of the elected Board will no
doubt object to works which they will urge are not
required by their districts, and which, with the ordi-
nary sewer rate of sixpence in the pound, will involve
a charge of five per cent. on all the property of the
metropolis; and, unless there be enacted a compul-
sory payment from " Local Boards," and compulsory
action on the part of the " General Board," the dis-
pollution of the Thames and arterial drainage will
probably be further and indefinitely deferred.
In 1853 Sir Benjamin Hall and Sir John V. Shel-
ley, the Metropolitan and the City Commissions of
Sewers, opposed a payment of 30,000/. for arterial
drainage, although it was only asked for twenty-five
years, and was to commence only after the construc-
tion of the works to the satisfaction of the Board of
Works, and amounting only to a rate of three
farthings or nne penny in the pound ; any profit
arising from the sale of the sewage to diminish and
extinguish this limited charge. How, then, can they
justify the supposition that the constituents of the
General Board will be involved voluntarily in an
annual payment of' seven times the amount, or
202,3171. per annum, especially when there is no
prospect of a profit, and a large increase in taxation,
to afford a ready excuse for delay ?
2. The first portion of the late Commission's
scheme, to cost 1,050,000/., is almost exclusively
provided for storm-waters, at an elevation of eighty
feet, running from Kilburn to Hackney, and from
Dulwich, Clapham, and Battersea tol Deptford, and
costing 300,0001. and 750,0001. respectively.
There are on an average only twenty-three inches
of rain in the metropolis annually falling on 150 wet
days, and a rainfall exceeding a quarter of an inch,
therefore, cannot occur very frequently. Evapora-
tion, independent of absorption supplying local wells,
is more than equal to the rainfall. On the Ist June,
1853, there fell 1.15 in. of rain in seventeen hours ;
and it is is evidence that, on the following day, it
passed off, without any difficulty, through existing
channels.
That storm-water drains were required was sub-
mitted by the Commissions of Sewers before a select
committee in 1853, but the statement was entirely
rejected, the committee considering that they would
actually have a very prejudicial effect, by depriving
the lower districts of their influx, and that, on the
contrary, sewage drains were required.
The City Commission of Sewers rejected the
scheme, to cost 1,050,0001., so soon as it was " pub-
lished," the Chairman declaring, on the 25th October,
1853, that "it was quite different from the original
plan, intended to go in the direction of the Isle of
Dogs"; and the surveyor stated "that he thought
he ought to have been consulted upon the matter."
The new Metropolitan Commission of Sewers, on the
day of their appointment, called these works in ques-
tion, and at their neat meeting, on the 6th December,