The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-05 00:00:00

THE SERPENTINE.

Mr. LOCKE asked the First Commissioner of Works
what stepshe had taken, or was about to take, in regard to
the :report of the committee upon the purification of the
Serpentine. It appeared, he said, that the sum of £14,000
had been expended out of the £17,000 which had been
voted. When the time came for the right hon. gentleman
to make his statement, he (Mr. Joseph Locke) would have
to express his opinions on the subject, and he would ask did
they think the people out of doors would be satisfied with
them so spending £14,000 out of £17,000 in the manner in
which it had been done. One scheme was proposed by one
gentleman, and then another gentleman comes forward and
• upsets that scheme. Whatever might be the opinion of the
house; he thought there should be some change in the de-
partment which had charge of this matter, and that the
hands in which that department was were not competent to
discharge their duties.
Mr.'BENTINCK thought the time was come when these
jobs out of the public purse should bo put an end to. Here
was £14,000 which they had been fooling away, and the
question was, would the people sanction such schemes. In
his opinion, such expenditure ought to be met by a metro-
politan rate, and he hoped the house would have its atten-
tion directed to this point.
Mr. COWPER said, the question they had to consider
was, the best mode of purifying the Serpentine. The plan
proposed last year appeared to be captivating, from its
novelty, more than for its merits, as the object to be ac-
complished was the clearing out of the mud from the
bottom of the Serpentine and pouring in fresh water.
When he came to consider the plan' officially, he shared
the opinion which was formed by eminent engineers, as
well as others, that however ingenious the scheme might
be the plan could not prove to be satisfactory. ' At the
time that the scheme was before the limrse ho did not ap-
prove of it, but having respect to the vote of the house, he
did not wish to make any alteration in the scheme without
giving the house an opportunity of expressing its opinion
upon it and being consulted, and with that view he thought
the object could be best arrived at by referring the sub-
ject to a select committee. That committee was very fairly
constituted, for parties were so nearly balanced in it that
their proceedings were anything but unanimeus. The
result of that committee was a recommendation that it
was desirable to abandon the system of filtration, and get
a supply of fresh water. He had, therefore, ordered the
removal of the works for filtration, and, in the first in-
stance, consulted with Mr. Simpson on the best possible
means for removing the foulness at the bottom of the lake,
and he had selected Mr. Simpson, from his great eminence
as an hydraulic engineer, and from his knowledge of the
spot, and his connexion with other works that were going
on in the immediate neighbourhood. lie (Mr. Cowper)
did not believe that filtration would deal with the erigin of
the evil, because the water, when filtered, would be liable
to the same defects, for the vegetable matter grew after
filtration, with redoubled activity. He had therefore an-
nounced to Mr. Hawkesley that his plan of filtration must
be abandoned, and that a supply of pure water might be
had from a well at the head of the present works in Ken-
sington-gardens, which would produce s daily supply of
half .a; million gallons from a tertiary sand of a very pure
charapter: The engine intended to facilitate filtration
would be employed in pumping the water from the tottoth
of the lake, passing it through conduits, and they would