| £ | s. | £ | |
| Chairman | 1,000 | ||
| Secretary and 7 clerks | 1860 | 0 | |
| Accountant and 5 clerks | 1015 | 0 | |
| Clerk of rates and 3 clerks | 630 | 0 | |
| 3,505 | |||
| Engineer and 5 clerks | 1830 | 0 | |
| 7 surveyors, of surveying and drawing staff, with 6 chainmen and 9 drawing clerks | 2125 | 0 | |
| 5 district surveyors | 1500 | 0 | |
| 12 clerks of works | 2278 | 0 | |
| 9 inspectors of flushing | 720 | 0 | |
| 22 flap and sluice keepers | 892 | 12 | |
| Bailiff, marsh-bailiff, and wallreeve | 187 | 8 | |
| 9,533 | |||
| Office keeper, strong-room keeper, and housekeeper | 350 | 0 | |
| 3 messengers and 3 errand-boys | 246 | 0 | |
| 596 | |||
| £14,634 | |||
The cost of rent, taxes, stationery, and office incidentals, is now 4440l., which makes the total yearly outlay amount to upwards of 19,000l. The annual cost of the staff in the secretary’s department is said to have been reduced from 3962l. 4s. to 3605l.; in the engineers’ department from 16,437l. 3s. to 8973l. 16s. In the general service there has been an increase from 606l. 16s. to 696l.
A deputation who waited lately upon Lord John Russell is said to have declared the expenses of the Commissioners’ office to be at the rate of from 25 to 30 per cent. on the amount of rate collected. The sum collected in the year 1850 averaged 89,341l. The cost of management in that year was 23,465l.; this, it will be seen, is 26 per cent of the gross income.
The annual statement of the receipts and expenditure under the Commission for the year 1851 has just been published, but not officially; from this it appears that in February, 1851—
| £ | s. | d. | |
| The balance of cash in hand was | 5,750 | 9 | 11 |
| The total receipts during the year have amounted to | 129,000 | 0 | 9 |
| Making together | 134,750 | 10 | 8 |
The expenditure, as returned under the general head, is—
| For work | £95,539 | 19 | 3 |
| (This item includes the cost of supervision and compensation for damages.) | |||
| The cost of surveys has been | 6,332 | 19 | 9 |
| Management | 16,430 | 9 | 2 |
| Loans | 10,442 | 10 | 2 |
| Contingencies | 2,749 | 1 | 1 |
| Total payments | 131,494 | 19 | 5 |
| Balance in hand | £3,355 | 11 | 3 |
As an instance of the mismanagement of the sewers work of the metropolis, it is but right that the subjoined document should be published.
I need not offer any comment on the following “Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated 28th July, 1851,” except that I was told early in January, on good authority, that the matter was now worse than it was when reported as follows:—
“Privy Gardens, Whitehall Yard, Scotland Yard, &c., Public Sewer.