The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-14 00:00:00

I METROPOLITAN COMMISSION
OF SEWERS.

so_ocoffoulan:
jhhrefmeeos.
qtri
sideßeseu sntsuihdgoi
reatingi
nyooepofernuymes
rrntswpohiewgro:ansnisi
‘eiternihidi
rgro: bylrfdauensaatapdhtare
adopting
three euiiotneerofkkgn
t:ehttsdhaeht
rneeGededretemrn,
report
Commissioners—
Siriornrnr.
stpl:uaC e.
rnHoseduufaarp wtnceoneesf
thereon as may be deemeder,anndecteossatarykefosruccharrniyeinagsutrhees
same into effect."
In consequence of the number of Commissioners
required to constitute a court (six out of the twelve)
some difficulty and delay is occasionally experienced.
Yesterday the court summoned f2r half-past eleven
was not open until half-past twel4! and then only for
the purpose of announcing a further delay until half-
past one. In the meantime the messenger dispatched
succeeded in obtaining the attendance of another
Commissioner, making up the required number.
Dm
airwaissoocnnoe,urnsetapEpr
teb.sreHinntga
rttioleneisnstgo, omksrit.rh eHJ:.:Ba iei;sl;el.l4::eichaecrrdaCwp oti
ck,
and Mr. Lewes.
The CHAIRMAN moved, pursuant to notice given,
" That the order of the
Special Court of Sewers of
the 29th of August, 1849, be rescinded." The order
has reference to the flushing operations carried on
under the authority of the Commissioners; and the
report as to their proceedings, now produced, would.
be received and laid before Parliament in a few days,
probably on Thursday next.
The Secretary then read the following report :--
" Pursuant to the resolution of the general committee,
that I should forthwith make a return to the order of
the Special Court of Sewers of the 29th of August, 1849,
as far as the materials for such return were already di-
gested and arranged, I beg to report to the Court the
stage to which the inquiry directed by that order has
advanced. The duty imposed upon me by the order in
question was to prepare an account in detail of all the
expenditure of and incident to the flushing works done
*since the opening of the Commission of November, 1847,
and of all the work done for such expenditure and under
whose direction, showing the length of the sewers
cleansed and, as nearly as may be, the quantity in cubic
yards of soil removed by such flushing from its original
place of deposit to its place of final discharge from the-
sewers, and to report thereon to the Court, with such
remarks as might enable the Court to form an opinion as
to the propriety of such expenditure. In order to ascer-
tain the most convenient mode of conducting the in-
quiry upon the passing of the order referred to, I pro-
ceeded to read the several reports made upon the subject
by the surveyors, examine the contracts, returns, and
pay-sheets, and conferred with several of the officers of
the Commission and with others, with a view to acquaint
myself with the general nature of the flushing opera-
tions and the successive changes which the system had
nndergone during the period mentioned in the order.
This preliminary investigation led me to the opinion that
the most convenient mode of commencing the inquiry
was to select one or two districts during the year 1849,
when the system bad become to a certain extent ma-
tured, and to ascertain its operation in these districts by
the examination of documentary and other evidence with
reference to the F everal heads of information
required by the order of Court. For this pur-
pose the eastern and western divisions of the Westmins-
ter sewers were selected, and I directed a re-
turn to be made for those districts of the sums paid to
the persons contracting to cleanse the sewers within
those limits, as well as of those sums paid in respect of
expenses which might fairly be considered as incident
to the operation of flushing, though this last head of ex-
penditure was one which presented considerable diffi-
culty, giving rise to much difference of opinion. To as-
certain the lengths cf sewers flushed, directions were
given that a careful abstract should be prepared of the
returns made by the inspectors during the period in
question, purporting to show the 'lengths of sewers
flushed under the contracts, and the number of times
each sewer was flushed. At the same time I took
steps for ascertaining, as nearly as could be conveniently
effected, the actual length of the sewers mentioned in
those returns, and directed a competent person in the
office, with two assistants, to determine the actual length
by a careful examination of the subterranean survey,
the registers of sewers detail maps on a large scale, sur-
veyors' reports on works completed, and orders of
Court. With respect to the quantity of deposit removed,
I may remark that the returns furnished to the Commis-
sioners professed to set out the length and dimensions of
the sewers, and the quantity of deposit removed ; and
it is obvious that the whole value of this information
depended on the accuracy with which these observations,
as to the depth of deposit, were made. I, therefore,
directed the clerks before alluded to to carefully ab-
stract the quantities stated in these returns, and, by the
lengths as correctly determined and the actual dimen-
sions and form of the sewers, to ascertain the quantity
removed; proposing, after obtaining this information,
to examine the parties by whom and in whose pre-
sence the deposit had been measured, to learn
whether this operation had been so conducted as to
justify confidence in its accuracy. The inquiry thus
commenced was proceeding at the time the first Metro-
politan Commission of Sewers was superseded. After
the issuing of the present Commission, my time was so
much engrossed by the current business of the Commis.

sion that -I
found it impossible to take any active part in
the investigation, though I from time to time examined
the work as it proceeded. This continued until within
a few weeks of the resolution of the House of Commons
requiring a copy of the return of the above order. I may
venture to remind the Commissioners that among the
earliest instructions to the engineer, after his appoint-
ment, was that he should direct his especial attention to
the flushing works, and within a very short time it was
determined by them to effect an alteration in that sys-
tem, and in the month of --, in the present year, it
was placed upon an improved and more economical foot-
ing. The present Commissioners having decided upon
the course to be taken in reference to this matter, thus
effected the chief object to which the inquiries directed
by the order of Court were intended to lead. The officers
selected for this duty have now carefully ascertained, by
reference to the documents I have named, the actual
length of each sewer in the eastern and western divisions
of Westminster returned by the flushing inspectors as
having been flushed during the
period under considera-
tion, and by taking the number of times each sower was
stated to have been flushed they have shown the total
number of lineal feet flushed in the above named divi-
sions during that period.
They have also given certain
results as to the quantity of deposit removed in cubic
yards, but on this it newt be observed that the value of
these depends on the correctness of the depth of deposit
stated in the returns, :which returns were made by the
flushing inspectors themselves, and the accuracy of
this portion of them I have up to this time had
no opportunity of testing.
the officers above referred to, Itth isatiheinrdeetu9drn' i stated
are
ro):
neous so far as regards the quantity of deposit removed
t 0.3
wt ankre,
winto
haccounta 1 tahre, veagrgi
--
—a
t iionna simn uthehe asahatpheeyofenlthite
shaped, or with segmental inverts—that they treated all
sewers as square, and consequently exhibit a consider-
able excess of deposit over what would have been shown
if the measurement had been taken with reference to the
actual form of each sewer. On the other hand, the
officer who had the charge of the flushing works alleges,
that the practical difference by either method of mea-
surement was, for various reasons, inconsiderable. But
it was never attempted to do more than give a rough
approximation to the truth, as the question of quantity
did not directly bear on the contract, but was merely
important with reference to certain collateral objects;
that from the irregular shapes which the deposit assumes
at the bottom of sewers, the numerous defects in the
sides and inverts of the open sewers by decay and other
causes, and the fact that the measurements were taken
in the middle of the sewers, the quantities returned are
rather under than over the mark; and he, moreover,
states that whenever reference was made to them in former
reports to the Commissioners, the gross quantities were
howeverd
onbt,
true
always considerably reduced. It
deposit,was, rio
that the question of the quantity n
im-
portant for the purpose of determining the relative coat
of the different systems, bad nothing whatever to do
with the contracts under which the work was performed.
These contracts were to keep the sewers ciean, or to
prevent deposit from accumulating in the sewers within
a certain district, at a given sum per week, and payment
was agreed to be made on the certificate that such
ntlraatcitn, g either
for work had been performed. Neitherthelengthof
the sewer cleansed, nor the quantity of deposit
re-
moved, was any element
tor determining final payment t the,
hoer regulating
vances. It appears to me, however, very questionable
whether there is any mode of ascertaining the quantity
of soil in cubic yards removed from its place of original
deposit to its place of final discharge, as directed by this
re-
turns relative to the Surrey and Kent district have been
yet been taken for
part of the order of the Court. The whole of the
has
western
idnivtisions. The
measuring the lengths or in
abstracted, but no further.
step
ptigating the other matters
in question, as in the eastern and wes.
spanner
general result of the inquiry, as conducted.
and the 4th olfviSsleopn,
between the sth of January, 18409,
lineal feet of sewers'
tember in the same year, 899,78
I have described, is to show that in the eastern di7'.'l3.
1 14s. 11d. ; that to this amount
con-
tractors the sum of 466 .
must be added the sum of 451. 2s. 4d for the cost of open-
ingwere flushed ; that for this there was paid to the
soil, cleansing
flushing, flushing small sewers, removing. .
- and other small items, and making yenn-
the ground before and making it goo.d after
nose pipes,
as the ventilating shafts re
chargeable to flushing,The deposit stated to have
la ti n g shafts, but the whole of theb the as t
depthshead is
funronoti pro-
perlysfbae
useful for other purposes.
been removed, as ascertained,
by the forms the
yards. The accuracy
sewers, amounts to 11,939 cubic
of thie, as before stated, I have had no opportunity of
inspectors, and the dimensions y
and .
western division the length flushed is
et and the total amount paid
stated at 1,320,206 lineal feet ,
of
this
tating. In the
to contractors in respect
5241. Os. 3d. To this must be
,added the
sum of 1881. 12s. sd. for openings and the other
items above enumerated in the case of the eastern
division. There are other:items of expenditure not yet
ascertained—the cost of flushing-gates, hooks, rakes,
and other implements, a proportion of the cost of yenti-