To these admirable remarks by Mr. Angell on the present position of the town surveyor I can add but little.
I believe that the sole reason which is given why Government protection is not granted to the surveyor is the argument used by those in authority, that if a surveyor disagrees with the corporation he serves, it is considered better that he should resign his appointment rather than be protected by the Local Government Board or other central office; but if this argument is sound, why does it not also apply in a similar manner to the medical officer of health or the inspector of nuisances? The real fact no doubt is, that in framing the Public Health Act of 1875, medical men were consulted and not engineers, and this is very apparent in many of the clauses, which will be fully considered in their proper places in this book.
The time will no doubt come when the necessity for some change in the position of the town surveyor will be apparent, and adequate protection will be afforded him; in the meantime let him strive, by attention to work, and by daily advancement in scientific knowledge, and in courtesy to those with whom he is associated, to make the position and power of the town surveyor felt and honoured as it should be throughout the kingdom.
[1] The section is as follows:—“The Commissioners shall appoint, subject to the prescribed approval, or where no approval is prescribed, subject to approval by one of Her Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, a person duly qualified to act as a local surveyor of the paving, drainage, and other works authorized under the provisions of this and the special Act . . . . . . and the Commissioners with the like approval may remove any such surveyor.”
[2] Vide ‘Minutes of Proceedings of the Association of Municipal and Sanitary Engineers and Surveyors,’ vol. i. p. 18.
CHAPTER II.
THE APPOINTMENT OF SURVEYOR.
Whenever a vacancy occurs in the office of surveyor to a town, or upon a sanitary authority determining to make such an appointment, the question is usually relegated to a committee or sub-committee to report upon the subject, to fix the amount of salary proposed to be given, and frame the duties of the office.
The following report is one that has lately emanated from an important English borough, and is given in full as a specimen of such reports, and as a guide on which a report could be framed; altered, of course, to such requirements as may be locally necessary:—