“Mr. Morris, a surveyor attached to the Metropolitan Sewers Commission, gives the following account of the action of trial works of improved house-drainage:—
“‘I have introduced the new 4-inch tubular house-drains into some houses for the trustees of the parish of Poplar, with water-closets, and have received no just cause of complaint. In every instance where I have applied it, I found the system answer extremely well, if a sufficient quantity of water has been used.
“‘The answer of the householders as to the effect of the new drainage has invariably been that they and their families have been better in health; that they were formerly annoyed with smells and effluvia, from which they are now quite free.
“‘Since the new drainage has been laid down there has been only occasion to go on the ground to examine it once for the whole year, and that was from the inefficiency of the water service. It was found that rags had been thrown down and had got into the pipe; and further, that very little water had been used, so that the stoppage was the fault of the tenant, not of the system.’”
Mr. Gotto, the engineer, having stated that in a plan for the improvement of Goulston-street, Whitechapel, not only was the removal of all cesspools contemplated, but also the substitution of water-closet apparatus, gave the following estimate of the cost, provided the pipes were made and the work done by contract under the Commissioners of Sewers:—
Water-closet Apparatus, &c.
| £ | s. | d. | |
| Emptying, &c., cesspool | 0 | 12 | 0 |
| Digging, &c., for 8-feet pipe drain, at 4d. | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| Making good to walls and floor of water-closet over drain, at 3d. | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 8 feet run of 4-inch pipe, at 3d. | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Laying ditto, at 2d. | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Extra for junction | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Fixing ditto | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Water-closet apparatus, with stool cock | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Fixing ditto | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Contingencies (10 per cent.) | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| The yard sink and drain would cost | 0 | 11 | 2 |
| Kitchen sink and drain | 0 | 15 | 7½ |
| So that the cost of back draining one house, including water-closet, would be | 3 | 2 | 9½ |
The front tubular drainage of a similar house (with fifteen yards of carriage-way to be paved) would cost 6l. 2s. 7½d.; or the drainage would cost, according to the old system, 11l. 13s. 11d.
“The engineering witnesses who have given their special attention to the subject,” state the Board of Health, in commenting on the information I have just cited, “affirm that upon the improved system of combined works the expense of the apparatus in substitution of cesspools would not greatly exceed one-half the expense of cleaning the cesspools.”
The engineers have calculated—stating the difficulty of coming to a nice calculation—that the present system of cesspools entailed an average expenditure, for cleansing and repairs, of 4d. a week on each householder; and that by the new system it would be but 1¾d. The Board of Health’s calculations, however, are, I regret to say, always dubious.