The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-28 00:00:00

CITY COURT OF SEWERS.

Yesterday, at a meeting of the Commissioners of Sewers,
held at Guildhall, Deputy De Jersey in the chair, a letter
was read from the directors of the Great Central Gas Com-
pany relative to the public lighting. Their attention, they
the engineer of the Commissioners in December last for
said, had been called to the report of experiments made by
the purpose of ascertaining the quantity of gas supplied
to the public lights—and, being surprised at the apparent
results, the directors instructed their engineers and chief
inspector to snake experiments upon the particular lamps
specified in that report, with the view of testing its accu.
racy, such lamps remaining in precisely the same condi-
tion as when experimented Lupon by the officers
of the Commission. The results of those experiments
showed the average consumption of the whole to
be 3.66 cubic feet of gas per hour. Classified into streets,
the consumption in Farringdon.street was 3.08 average an
hour; Fleet-street, 3.14; Skinner-street, 3.6; Snow-hill,
; Well-court, 5.4 ; Upper Thames-street, 3.90 ; and
Bucklerabury, 3.90. The pressures at which those burners
mains at that time was one-tenth of an inch less
pressure during the hours of lighting.
were tried were taken from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., and the pres-
gthase southern city sqiudaentoiftythcsenctritayetebdeinfogr,suthpe-
tshuarenonthteheaverage
From those results the directors believed that, instead of the
lampslneessitnless thanirom 20 to 25 per cent. more than
publicap
supply
pepd
withy w
as
such contract quantity. On the motion of Deputy Elliott,
the letter was referred to the General Purposes Committee
for consideration and report, as was also an application from
the City Gas Company to lay down a 24-inch gas main from
their works near Blackfriars -bridge to the Minories by way
of Ludgate-hill, St. Paul's-churchyard-Cannon-street, and
Eastcheap, in order that the committee might prescribe the
hours of the day at which the work ought to be done, with
the least inconvenience to the public and interruption of the
traffic. A novel application was made by Deputy Bower with
respect to a public lamp in a part of Billingsgate, where
upwards of 200 years ago a citizen fell at night and broke
his leg, and afterwards bequeathed a sum of £4 a year for
the maintenance there of a public light at night for all time
The money had been regularly paid for two centuries, and,
since the introduction of gas, to a gas company charged
with lighting the district, and who had kept up the light.
The application now was for a new lamp in place of one
which had become ruinous from age. It was granted. A
report was brought up from the General Purposes Commit-
tee, and agreed to, recommending the payment by the
Chamberlain, on the 24th of June next, of £10,136 odd, the
estimated contribution due from the city to the expenses of
the Metropolitan Board of Works for the current year. On
the recommendation of the same committee, the Commis-
sioners ordered a consolidated rate of Bd. in the pound for
the half-year ending July 1, and a sewer rate for the whole
current year at the rate of 3d. in the pound. A letter ad-
dressed to the Court by the Secretary to the Commission-
ers of Customs was read. Dr. Letheby, he said, having
stated in a report to the Commissioners of Sewers that
diseased cattle which had been landed from a foreign ship
in October last, and condemned by the veterinary surgeon
employed by the Customs Department, had been taken to
market to be dressed, instead of having been destroyed,
and that
the unwholesome meat had probably gone into
consumption, the Commissioners of Customs had made par-
ticularinquiries into the matter: From the evidence they
had obtained it appeared that ten carcases of diseased Bre-
men beasts,
imported in the vessels Schwalbe and Schwan
on 21st October last, were condemned by the veterinary
surgeon, and delivered into the charge of E. Snell, an officer
of revenue, for conveyance to the premises of W. T. Favey,
at 2, James-street, Bethnal-green, in order to their being
effectually destroyed. It also appeared that the carcases of
three foreign beasts, in a very bad condition, were taken to
the slaughter-house of Mr. C. H. Packman, in Islington-
market, on the evening of the same day, by one Markham,
a carrier, for the
purpose of being dressed for market, and
that the meat) when dressed, was delivered to Markham.
The mark on one of the condemned beasts corresponded
with the mark upon one of the beasts taken to Packman, s,
and' inasmuch as three of the beasts were conveyed from
the importing vessel in a cart driven by Markham, the
Board were Of opinion that the three beasts taken by Mark-
ham to Putman's formed part of those entrusted to Snell

for conveyance to Favey's yard for the purpose of being de-
stroyed. Under those circumstances the Board had punished
Snell for his neglect of duty in having allowed the beasts to
be withdrawn from his charge before they had been cut up
and rendered unfit for food. The Court then adjourned.