In reference to the structural arrangements which come within the public authority, the majority of professional persons the best acquainted with the description of tenements occupied by the poorer classes, and the importance of getting the work done, agree that it would, on the whole, be the most advantageous course to execute them, by loans paying interest on the security of the rates, and spread the charge over 30 years during which the original outlay should be repaid. This would allow of the annual instalment being charged in fair proportions to the tenant, and to the holders of short interests.

The outlay for the execution of measures which come within the public authority are those, 1, for bringing water on the premises; 2, for applying it to remove refuse by a cheap apparatus; 3, a drain for conveyance of the refuse to the (4) main drains or common sewer.

In the rural districts all these purposes of cleansing may, it is considered, be accomplished by means of a proper use of the rain-water; and that which is here given may be considered as a maximum estimate for towns, if the work be properly done by public contract on a large scale.

First Outlay per Tenement.Annual Instalment for Repayment in Thirty Years.Annual interest, commuted at 5 per cent. on Outlay charged as Rent on Tenant.Weekly Charge to the Tenant, or increased Rent, being the 1/54th part of the sum of the annual instalment and annual interest.Total Outlay on One-third (1,148,282 inhabited houses) of the existing Tenements in England, Wales and Scotland.
First Outlay.Annual Instalment for Repayment in Thirty Years.Annual Interest commuted at 5 per cent. on Outlay charged as Rent on Tenant.
£.s.d.s.d.£.s.d.d.£.£.£.
Water-tank[[35]] and apparatus1086611068311,970,840399,028379,687
Sewer5120390361½6,430,379214,346203,957
Water 0501
Total10801525½18,401,219613,374583,644

The above is a maximum estimate, and if the work be executed systematically by contract for districts, the charge may be so far reduced that it may be taken to include repairs, but if it were executed by each occupier or each owner separately, 15 per cent. must be added to the charge; and if, in addition to the separate charge incurred by neglect of legislative or administrative arrangements there be also incurred the ordinary fees of new surveyors of sewers, and new surveyors of buildings, paid by the ordinary fees, the charge for these structural improvements will be still further increased.

But the supplies of water for all the household purposes at the highest water company’s charges, which is 138 pailsful for less than 1¼d., is, in fact, to be considered a reduction of an existing expenditure of labour of fetching water.

The cost of cleansing privies is estimated as an existing charge in the metropolis and many towns of not less than 10s. per tenement annually. If the duty were duly performed the cost would perhaps be double that amount, and be equivalent to the whole of the proposed new expenditure; and taking the new expenditure as being less that charge, there only remains the cost of the new sewerage,—1½d. weekly, or 6s. 6d. annually. Supposing this charge of 1½d. weekly imposed upon the landlord, he will have to set against it the preservation of the tenement from dilapidation by drainage, which of itself would frequently repay the whole outlay. He has also the circumstance to consider that he may get better tenants by the improvement of his houses, and that with such tenants he will have more regular payments of rent. Protracted sickness and protracted losses of employment, and the frequent mortality caused by neglect of cleansing, occasion heavy losses to the owners, and occasion a greater diminution of the returns for such tenements than is commonly apparent.

One obstruction to any amendment by cleansing is occasioned by the circumstance that the laying on the water is considered a tenant’s charge, and the lower the class the more fluctuating the tenantry and the greater the reluctance of the tenant, and the less indeed are the means to make any immediate outlay for permanent purposes. To cast any immediate outlay on occupiers of this class, who have scarcely self-control to make reserves of the weekly rents, practically amounts to a prohibition of the work being done. That which will in extensive districts really be a new charge, i. e., sewerage, will fall only at the rate of the 1½d. per week per tenement, and as most tenements are now occupied in the more crowded districts, this will be a charge to be divided between two families. If it were properly distributed, it is an amount not to be spoken of as serious in the weekly charge.[[36]]

New charges, for improved house accommodation, as well as for sewerage and house cleansing, may all be submitted as means for the reduction of the existing heavy charges of sickness, and of the loss of work and loss of wages consequent upon sickness. To judge of the extent of the immediate charge of sickness in money and time, which is independent of the charge of insurance against premature death, we may select the case of an ordinary family, say of a man at 40, a wife at 30, and two children, who may be represented as equivalent to one child aged 15, the lowest age estimated in the insurance tables, which for an average family is an under estimate. Now to insure these a payment of 10s. per week each during sickness, the charges would be as follows, according to the insurance tables computed by Mr. Finlaison for the guidance of benefit societies.

AgeFor an allowance of 10s. per week, during sickness, according to the Table constructed by Mr. Finlaison, the Actuary of the National Debt Office.
Monthly Payment.Single Payment.
£.s.d.£.s.d.
Man, 4002112752
Woman, 300111½2106
Child, 15013¼14181
Total per family061¾6339
Total annual charge3139
Total weekly charge per family015