The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

THE DEPUTATION TO SIR B. HALL.

The Clerk read the report of tho president rela-
tive to the conference with the Chief CommiAsioner
of Works yesterday. It merely recapitulated the
main features of the interview.

Mr. CARPMAEL moved that the report of the chair-
man be received, and entered on the minute; of the

board.

Mr. SAVAGE seconded the motion, which was
unanimously agreed to.
Mr. CARPMAEL said it was quite clear after that
report that the board had a duty to perform as to
the manner in which it was to proceed in future.
With reference to its duties under the statute, the
board was unquestionably required to prepare plans
for main drainage. It had prepared plane, and had
submitted them to the First CounisQioner, who,
however, had negatived them ; so that at the pre-
sent moment the board was not posseesed of a plan
to present to Government in order to get their ap-
proval for its being carried out, He felt that they
were now in the same position as if they had never
prepared any pieta, with this exception, that there
was floating between' he FirstOommissioner and the
board a series of plans, in part prepared by the board,
and in part by the referees of the First Commis-
sioner. In his opinion the board ought first to com-
ply with the requirements of the act in reference
to preparing plans, and then take up the money
question. The earlier both were dealt with the
better. (a ar.) It had been suggested by the
First Commissioner that two members of thgboerd,
with their engineer, should meet the rererees in
order to discuss their differences and agreements.
That the engineer of the board should meet the re-
ferees engineers was i❑ his op nion very desirable,
but he entirely disagreed with the recemmendat ion
of the First Commissioner, that the engineer of the
board be accompanied by two members. He felt
that whcever these two members were they would
be placed in a false position. Now, it struck him
that it would -place their engineer in an unfair
position if he were called upon to meet two or
three talented Government engineers without some
aid. At the same time it occurred to him that
both the engineer of the board and the referees
might be teo prejudiced in favour of their own
scheme, and therefore he thought that two eminent
engineers should be named to accompany Mr. Ba-
zalgette. At the former interview he thought, and
lie believed the world thought—he was confident
the board thought—that the Chief Commissioner
considered that if this board made up its mind to
carry the sewage of the metropolis to B*, at the
spot where he himself marked the map, under the
instruction of Captain Burstall, it would have ful-
filled its duty and all the requirement& of the act ;
and that if any further extension of the outfell was
decided upon it would be dealt with in some other
way than by taxing the metropolis. That, hew-
ever, did not appear to be the opinion of the Chief
Commissioner now. He must express his thanks
to the chairman for the manner in which he had re-
presented the hoard at the conference yesterday.
In conclusion, he moved " Tlett the eriginser ofthe
board, together with such professional aid as he
may requ're, be instructed to meet and conferwith
the referee engineers."
Colonel KENNEDY seconded the motion. He had
formerly opposed a motion for obt aping further
professional advice, but under present circum-
stances he thought it was desirable.
Alderman CUBIT; M P., inquired whether the
First Commissioner would bo likely to agree to such
nomination ?

The PRESIDENT said he did not think there would
be any difficulty upon that point. .
Mr. DeuraoN quite concurred in the absurdity
of naming two members of the board to accompany
the engineer. Before sending the engineer, how-
ever, it would, in his opinion be requisite to settle
some preliminaries. The board ought first to de-
cide whether it would clrry the sewage clown to
Sea Reach without contribution, and mernbAs
should recollect thlt the opinion of the First Corn-
missioner as to the area t) be drained was at vari-
ance with the decision of the board on that matter.
These points should first be settled.
The PRESIDENT slid that the additional area
proposed by the engiceers was
given up.
After some further discussion, the following mo-
tion, proposed by Mr. SAVAGE, was carried unani-
mously, Mr. OARPMAEL having previously with-
drawn his resolution :—" That the 'report of the
chairman on the conference with the Fir&t Commis-
sioner bo taken into considtration at a special meet-
ing, to be held ma Monday week, and that a COPY
oCthe shorthand writer's notes be procured,,printed,
and sent to every member as soon as possible."