The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-13 00:00:00

BOARD OF IIEALTH MANAGEMENT.

(From the Nottingham Review.)
Our attention has been called to a letter, which has
been recently addressed by our townsman, Mr. Hawks-
ley, C.E., to the Marquis of Chandos, M.P., "in
relation to the exercise of some of the extraordinary
powers assumed by the General Board of Health, and
the superintending inspectors, anti the public and private
wrongs resulting therefrom." It would appear that Mr.
Hawksley's testimony had been sought by the com-
mittee on the Great Grimsby Improvement Bill. Mr.
Hawksley is well known to many of our readers, as
having had great experience in the drainage and water-
supply of large towns ; and his emineoce in the pro-
fession to which he belongs, is calculated to give great
weight to the important charges which he brings forward.
He says :
" By the 116th section of the Public Health Act it is pro-
vided that the consent of the General Board shall be a con-
dition precedent to the raising of money on mortgage of
local rates, for effectuating, by the construction of perma-
nent works, the object and purposes of the Public Health
Act, just as, in the case of municipal corporations, the con-
sent of the Treasury is by the Municipal Act made a condi-
tion precedent to the alienation of any portion of corporate
property.
" Out of this very simple and apparently proper and
innocent clause (so simple, proper, and innocent as to have
escaped the attention of the Legislature when the Public
Health Act was, under the plea of a sudden visitation of
disease, hurriedly passed through Parliament), the General
Board and its inspectors have respectively contrived and
organised a system of central control over local authorities,
and of personal pecuniary advantage hitherto unheard of
in a country distinguished by the freedom of its institu-
tions and the purity of its Government.
" The action of the Genera! Board is shortly this :
" 1. A memorial, purporting (and only purporting, for
there is no inquiry into the fact) to have been signed by
one-tenth only of the ratepayers, sets the 23oard in motion.
The memorial is frequently suggested to some persons in
the locality by an inspector, with an intimation that if
such request be made, the General Board will select this
particular inspection to hold the so called in TAU.
"2. Upon the receipt of this memorial, the General
Board send down an inspector to make such local inquiry,
which local inquiry invariably results in the production of
a report by the inspector against all the existino institu-
tions and authorities, and conclades by a recommendation
that the Public Health Act should be applied.
" 3. Thereupon, in almost all cases, the General Board
makes a provisional order, or order in council, that the
Public Health Act shall be applied, that a Local Board of
Health shall be constituted, and that all other local autho-
rities (except municipal corporations), whether established
by Act of Parliament or otherwise, shall be abolished.
Moreover, the order, anomalous. as this may appear, gene-
rally assumes to repeal the whole or portions of existing
Acts of Parliament, to apply portions of other acts not
relating to the locality, and sometimes oven to revive the
powers of former acts which the legislature has delibe-
rately repealed. oe
" 4. The order once applied and the Local Board elected
—works of drainage, water supply, or other local improve-
ment are frequently proposed to be carried into execution,
and therefore Local Board have usually sought the assist-
ance of such surveyors, architects, or civil engineers, to
assist and advise them, and to direct the practical opera-
tions, as the nature of the work might require.
"5. Works cannot, however, be executed without
funds ; an application to the General Board therefore be-
comes necessary and is made.
" 6. The General Board, however, instead. of limiting its
inquiry, as is done by the Treasury and other departments
of government, to the necessity of the work upon which
the money is proposed to be expended and the consequent
general propriety of such expenditure, demands plans, sur-
veys, detailed estimates, and other Minute details of the
work itself.
" 7. Having obtained these, they are placed in the hands
of some one of the Board's superintending inspectors, to in-
quire, examine, and report upon. But it SU happens, that
Mr. Chadwick (who in fact, though not in la vr, is the Board)
entertains most peculiar views in favour o-f diminutive
" tubular pipe drains," " combined back drainage," " im-
permeable sewers," " drainage water supplies," " soil pans
fed direct from watermains," ‘• distribution of sowage water
by pumping over adjacent lands," " large scale surveys," &c.,
in not one of which is countenanced by the most eminent
and most practical men of the profession ; and further
happens, that the five inspectors selected by the board,
not only do adopt Mr.. Chadwick's peculiar views,. but
are also permitted, and by Mr. Chadwick directly en con-
raged, to obtain from local boards, as private engin.cers
and for their own emolument, the execution of as many as
possible of the works proposed by local authorities.
" 8. Hence it results from the inspectors (who no w
commonly, at the expense of the consolidated fund, re-
visit the locality) find occasionally to speak unfavourably
of the designs of other engineers, and to support their
own superiority of information, and the great facility in
their power to afford to Local Boards in obtaining the con-
sent of the General Board.
" 9. The inspector's report being made, the board refuses
its assent to the borrowing of money on the mortgage of
the rates, and consequently the local authorities become
wholly unable to prosecute their plans of local improve-
ment. _ .

10. Dissatisfaction results. Either the local engineer
is at once summarily disposed of and an inspector employed,
or an "almost interminable correspondence, negociation,
series of deputations, controversy, and other dit.ficulties
and obstructions ensue, both on the part of the inspectors
and on the part of the general board.
" 11. In this manner important works of local improve-
ment aro either wholly suspended or grievously dekty ed,
or can only be carried into execution by the adoption of
Mr. Chadwick's views and the professional employment of
a superintending inspector ; thus imposing upon all local
boards the necessity of adopting modes of construction which
have signally failed at Croydon and elsewhere, and the at all
events limited skill and experience of employes of the Board
appointed to exercise disinterested judicial functions, but
whose services are liable to be discontinued the moment
they dissent from the peculiar views already alluded to,
and whose determinations and reports in favour of those
views, and consequently in disfavour of • other professional
men, are rewarded by professional engagements thus prac-
tically imposed on local authorities.
" The result of the operation of this system has been
most mischievous. The grossest jobbing prevails. Diffi-
culties are thrown in the way of improvement. One sys-
tem of construction, and that undoubtedly of a most
erroneous and even pernicious character, is insisted upon,
and must be extended over the whole kingdom. Able
professional men are,wrongfully injured, both in reputation
and pocket, for the gain of Government inspectors. Con-
fidence in the integrity of public men is utterly destroyed.
Provincial towns are deprived of the advantages of self-
government, and the hitherto supposed supremacy of Par-
liament absolutely negatived.
"In my own professional practice I have experienced
all the difficulties above alluded to in a most painful de-
gree."
Mr. Hawksley goes on to state a case, in which he had

" Prepared plans of so perfect a character that they re-
ceived, on subsequent reference, the approval and com-
mendation of most eminent engineers ; yet thess plans
were placed in the hinds of an inspector who had just
previously carried on by his partner a long and most
discreditable private correspondence with one of my
clerks whilst in my service, with the acknowledged
intention of abstracting him from my employment,
and thereby obtaining valuable information and the
results of my experience, for the express purpose of
carrying on a private business in competition with myself,
and under favour of the General Board. Of course I de-
clined to meet the inspector, and informed the Board of
the reason ; whereup,rn the inspector reported against my
plans, and denied every allegation against himself. The
Board thereupon refused its assent to the application of
the local authority. A long and most acrimonious cor-
respondence ensued, which finally resulted (after many
months of delay) in a tardy and unwilling consent being
given to the raising of funds, and the subsequent com-
mencement of works in the month of March, 1853, instead
of in the month of April, 1852. No inquiry was instituted
into the conduct of the inspector, but I afterwards had
placed in my hands the whole of the private correspon-
dence referred to."
Mr. Hawksley mentions one case, in which his drawings
and specifications for a now water work, for a private com-
pany, were reproduced verbatim, at two towns, where an
Inspector of the Board of Health (who had required the
production of these drawings, &c., to him) " had become
employed both as inspector and engineer, putting them
forth as his own, and affixing his own name thereto." He
also states that none of the superintending inspectors had
" made waterworks previous so their engagement under
the Board." He then mentions the names of several towns
in which the services of private individuals had been re-
jected, to make way for inspectors of the Board; and he
concludes by stating that, "In the whole there were as
early as February of the present year, no fewer than 44
cases (as appears by an admission of Mr. Chadwick) in
which public inspectors in the pay of the government had
become private engineers, in reference to the work over
which the General Board assume an irregular, and cer-
tainly unauthorised control."
Mr. Hawksley's statements as to the primary application
of the Public Health Act to a particular locality, are
strongly corrobrated by the circumstances which took place
in Derby. So loosely was the "local inquiry" conducted,
that then existing committee of the Improvement Com-
missioners were enabled to give a complete refutation to
the mass of errors, and even mis-statements, contained in
the Inspector's report. The experience of our neighbours
makes us feel thankful that we have nothing to do with
the Board of Health in Nottingham. Mr. Hawksley's
observations as to the " peculiar views" of the General
Board, in reference to certain works, are worthy of great
consideration.

The employment of superintending inspectors, " as pri-
vate engineers and for their own emolument," is objec-
tionable in the highest degree. Such a course is, at any
rate. calculated to lead to the grossest jobbing. As well
might the Surveyor of the Admiralty be permitted to con-
struct government ships for his own private emolument--
the poor-law inspectors to traffic in supplying food for the
poor—or the local town surveyor to contract for paving
and other works, to bo constructed under his official
superintendence. The vast improvements which have been
effected with everything connected with the comforts and
conveniences of life, owe but little to the fostering hand of
official patronage; and it is every day becoming more im-
portant that the execution of public works—especially of a
local nature—should be thrown open to the unrestricted
competition of individual skill and enterprise.

A MACHINE FOR REPORTERS.—The Randolph Whig
an American paper, says :—" In September, 1850,
John B. Fairbanks, Esq., took out a patent for
an invention calculated to enable any man who
can move his hands rapidly in a vertical direction,
to report a speaker in full, with ease and certainty.
It is operated by keys, which by their move-
ment, connected with stenographic types, imprint a new
alphabet of short-hand characters upon the paper. The
alphabet contains only five elementary characters, and
by combinations of these, all the other letters, together
with numerous word-signs, are made. The fingers
and thumb of one hand are sufficient to operate five
keys, which constitute the alphabet, and to make in-
numerable changes upon the same, so that one hand can
write one row of signs upon the paper, while another set
of five keys under the other hand can, at the same time, be
made to write another one. It is really gaining the use of
both hands at once writing stenography, and the hand
will certainly not so soon grow weary of simply striking
those keys, as of constantly pushing a quill, with those
who have tried it well know is worth all it comes to.
Messrs. Fairbanks and How have now in process an
improvement upon this invention, calculated to write
oat a speech in Roman characters, instead of short-
hand. For sketch reporting this would be admirable,
as the " copy" would_be more complete, ;end easier for
the compositor.