[171] In the metropolis of London alone, the watering of the streets and roads employs, in addition to a staff of inspectors and foremen, about 1500 men, and an equal number of horses and carts; and in order to lay the dust effectually, about 30,000 tons of water must be spread upon the streets every dry day, the cost of this gigantic work being nearly 200,000l. per annum upon an average of 120 days when watering becomes necessary.
[172] In Rouen, where chloride of calcium is obtained from the manufactories of pyroligneous acid in the neighbourhood, it is mixed with the water for use on the roads, and it is stated that on a mile of road, 16 feet in width, 5630 gallons of water were necessary daily, but that the same result was attained with 1480 gallons of chloride solution, marking 30° Baumé, and costing about ¹⁄₂d. per gallon, the humectation remaining good for five or six days with the solution of chloride. With water only in 1093 yards, in four rounds daily, 3520 gallons were used, the cost being 48s.; with chloride of calcium the cost was 32s. per day.
[173] Amongst the questions which I addressed to the surveyors of the principal towns of England in 1879 was the following:—“Is the house refuse collected by the sanitary authority or by a contractor?” and out of the ninety towns from which I received replies, only thirty were found to employ contractors for this purpose, and of these the authorities of two of them proposed to dispense with the services of the contractor, and to administrate the work with their own staff, as they found the existing state of things was thoroughly unsatisfactory.
CHAPTER XX.
SEWERAGE.
The Public Health Act 1875 contains a considerable number of clauses dealing with the subject of the sewers of a town, but two of the shortest sections in the whole Act, and yet those that involve a considerable amount of work in the town surveyor’s department, are the following:
“Every local authority shall keep in repair[174] all sewers belonging to them, and shall cause to be made such sewers as may be necessary for effectually draining their district for the purposes of this Act”[175] (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 15).
“Every local authority shall cause the sewers belonging to them to be constructed, covered, ventilated,[176] and kept so as not to be a nuisance or injurious to health, and to be properly cleansed and emptied”[177] (38 & 39 Vic. c. 55, s. 19).
As to what sewers do “belong” to the local authority, the following section of the Public Health Act 1875 states:
“All existing and future sewers within the district of a local authority, together with all buildings, works, materials, and things belonging thereto,