adjustment between the London Council and the councils of those counties.1 and industrial schools. The London Council will also have the powers now possessed Reformatory by county authorities of undertaking or contributing towards the alteration, enlargement, or rebuilding of certified reformatory or industrial schools or the support of the inmates, or the management, establishment, or building of such schools or the purchase of land for the use of an existing school, or as a site for a new school, but where the contribution is for alteration, enlargement, rebuilding, establishment, or building, or for the purchase of land, the approval of a Secretary of State is required. The council may also contribute towards the ultimate disposal of any inmate of any school established by them.2 It will be the duty of the London Council as the local authority Weights and for the metropolis outside the city of London and the city of measures. Westminster, under the Weights and Measures Act, 1878, to provide local standards of measure and weight for the purpose of comparison of all weights and measures in use within that area, and to fix the places at which such standards are to be deposited. They must also appoint a sufficient number of inspectors of weights and measures and (subject to any arrangement made by a chief inspector) must allot to each inspector a separate district. It will also be the duty of the county council to fix the times and places of the attendance of the inspectors for the purpose of verifying weights and measures. The council may suspend or dismiss any inspector appointed by them, and must assign reasonable remuneration to each inspector.3 In addition to the matters already considered there are certain Minor minor powers transferred from the county authorities to the transferred London Council. These include powers as to the making and powers. levying of rates and as to county finance, county buildings, county treasurer, licensing of racecourses, county polling district, coroner's districts, Local Stamp Act, rules of loan societies, &c. Powers transferred from the Metropolitan Board of Works. The creation of the Metropolitan Board of Works was chiefly Main drainage. due to the pressing necessity of having some central authority to deal with the question of the drainage of London. Under the Metropolis Management Act, 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c. 120), the whole of the then existing main sewers in London were vested in the metropolitan board. These sewers were identified by being placed in a schedule to the Act. All other sewers were placed under the management and control of the vestries and district 1 L. G. A., sec. 40 (7). 2 Ibid., sec. 3 (vii.) and notes thereto. 3 See 40 & 4I Vict. c. 49, secs. 40, 43, 44, and 47; and L. G. A., sec. 3 (xiii.) and notes thereto. 4 As to these minor jurisdic- 5 M. M. A., 1855, sec. 135. Local sewerage. boards created by the Act, and in the city the other local sewers remained under the control of the Commissioners of Sewers.1 The Act required the board to make such sewers and works as they might think necessary for preventing all or any part of the sewage within the metropolis from flowing or passing into the Thames within the metropolis.2 It also required them to make all such other sewers and works and such diversions or alterations of any existing sewers or works vested in them under the Act as they might from time to time think necessary for the effectual sewerage and drainage of the metropolis, and from time to time to repair and maintain the sewers and to discontinue, close up, or destroy, any sewers that they might deem to be unnecessary. The Act also empowered the board by order to declare sewers not vested in them to be main sewers, and thereupon the sewers so declared were to vest in and be under the management of the board.3 In order to secure the efficient maintenance of the main and general sewerage of the metropolis, the board were further empowered to make bye-laws for the guidance, direction, and control of the vestries and district boards and other persons in relation to the levels, dimensions, construction, maintenance, and cleansing of sewers, and otherwise for the guidance, direction, and control of the vestries and district boards in the exercise of their powers and duties in relation to sewerage. The powers thus given have been fully carried out by the board. In 1855 London drained almost entirely into the Thames, but now there is supposed to be no sewage outlet within the metropolitan area. In addition to about 120 square miles of metropolitan area certain outside districts have been permitted to join the system.5 The total cost of main drainage and main sewers has been £6,569,084. As far as the metropolitan area is concerned the new London Council will inherit the control of a drainage system as nearly perfect as engineering skill can make it. The estimated cost of the maintenance of the sewerage and drainage works and pumping stations for the year 1888 was £84,560. With respect to local sewerage, something has also been done in 1 M. M. A.; sec. 68. These commissioners exercise their powers under 11 & 12 Vict. c. clxiii. and 14 & 15 Vict. c. xci. The powers of vestries, &c., as to sewerage may be transferred to the Board (M. M. A., 1855, sec. 89), but this must be with the consent of the Board (M. M. A., 1862, sec. 28). 2 See M. M. A., 1855, sec. 135, and 21 & 22 Vict. c. 104. 3 M. M. A., 1855, sec. 137. 4 Ibid., sec. 138, and M. M. A., 1862, sec. 83. 5 See Hornsey Act, 34 & 35 Vict. c. 129; South Hornsey Act, 37 & 38 Vict. c. 97; Beckenham Sewerage Act, 36 & 37 Vict. c. 218; Lea Purification Act, 49 & 50 Vict. c. 109, admitting the sewage water of Tottenham for a limited period. Parliamentary Return, 1888, No. 199. the direction of uniformity. Thus it is provided that the vestries and district boards before constructing or sanctioning the construction of new sewers should submit the plans to the board for approval: and, before connecting any sewer or drain with a main sewer, should give three days' notice in writing to the board. The approval of the board in writing was also required to any abandonment, extension, contraction, or alteration in designs for sewers previously approved by the board, and if any authorised sewer was not constructed within twelve months from the date of the approval by the board the works could not be proceeded with without the written consent of the board." No person is under the Act permitted to branch any sewer or drain or make any opening into any sewer vested in the board without the previous consent of the board in writing. The principal Act as amended empowered the board to con- Sewage struct sewers so as to prevent sewage passing into the Thames disposal. "within the metropolis." "98 The board therefore carried the whole sewage of the metropolitan area to outfalls on the north side of the Thames at Barking, and on the south side at Crossness. By the Thames Navigation Act, 1870, the board are required to keep the Thames free from sewage obstruction at the outfalls, and by the Thames Conservancy Act, 1857,10 persons allowing offensive matter to flow into the Thames may be proceeded against. The city corporation as sanitary authorities for the port of London made serious complaint to the Home Secretary in 1882 as to the effect of the sewage discharge into the river by the board. In the result a Royal Commission was appointed and reported that at certain seasons such discharge resulted in offensive smells and other inconvenience. They also reported in favour of a system of precipitation being adopted. The board have endeavoured to carry out this part of the commissioners' report by the establishment of vast settling tanks and by chemical precipitation. They were unable in proximity with the existing outfalls to obtain land available for the final filtration of the sewage as the commission had recommended, but after a series of elaborate experiments, they concluded to adopt an alternative method under which, after the sewage has been precipitated by means of lime and proto-sulphate of iron, the effluent is treated with manganate of soda and sulphuric acid. The enormous expense of the establishment of a system of precipitation may be judged from the fact that the contract for the necessary works at Barking alone was let in 1887 for £406,000, 1 M. M. A., 1862, sec. 45. 2 Ibid., sec. 48. 3 The total length of sewers, of which the plans have been so submitted, is 1155 miles, of which 143 miles were submitted in 1887. 4 M. M. A., 1862, sec. 46. 5 Ibid., sec. 50. Ibid., sec. 51. 7 Ibid., sec. 61. 8 M. M. A., 1855, sec. 135; 21 & 22 Vict. c. 104, sec. I. 9 33 & 34 Vict. c. cxlix., sec. 20. 10 20 & 21 Vict. c. cxlvii., sec. 102. Fire brigade. and power to expend a large sum more is given by the Board of Works Money Act, 1888.1 The resulting sludge is being carried out to sea in tank vessels, as its value for agricultural purposes has not yet been ascertained. The new London Council will come into office with the works at both outfalls in course of construction or preparation, and with this vast experiment in progress. The whole subject is one of the most difficult with which the council will have to deal. The estimated cost of deodorisation in the sewers and at the outlets for the year 1888, was £60,000.2 Since January, 1866, the Metropolitan Board have had the control of the arrangements for extinguishing fire in London. The Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act, 1865,3 imposed upon the board the duty of extinguishing fires and protecting life and property in case of fire within the metropolis, and with a view to the performance of that duty empowered them to provide and maintain an efficient force of firemen, to furnish them with the necessary equipments, and to acquire stations and such other buildings and land as they may think requisite. The Act also empowered the board to make bye-laws for the regulation of the fire brigade and to establish fire escapes throughout the metropolis. The expenses of the fire brigade were by the Act to be defrayed from three sources, viz., a halfpenny rate over the metropolis:* contributions by the Fire Insurance Companies at the rate of £35 in the million of gross amounts insured by them and a contribution not exceeding £10,000 a year from the Government, being in fact in respect of the protection afforded to public buildings. These three sources of revenue still remain, but repeated efforts have been made by the board to increase them by raising the rate limit to a penny and the Fire Insurance Companies' contribution to £40 per million insured. By the Metropolitan Board of Works Loans Act, 1869, increased pecuniary facilities were given to the board, enabling them to pay the interest on borrowed money and to redeem the principal out of the proceeds of the metropolitan consolidated rate apart from the halfpenny portion of the rate allotted for fire brigade purposes. The Act also provided that for the future the halfpenny rate might be calculated on the gross value of the property assessed to the consolidated rate instead of, as before, on the rateable value. By sec. 34 of the Metropolis Water Act, 1871, the board were required to pay out of their general rate the expense of providing hydrants for the extinction of fires. Since that time about £400,000 has been borrowed for fire brigade purposes, and the interest and sinking fund charged on the general rate. 1 51 & 52 Vict. C. 40, sec. 7. 2 Parliamentary Return, 1888, No. 199. 3 See 28 & 29 Vict. c. 90. 4 Ibid., sec. 19. Ibid., secs. 13-17. The revenue of the fire brigade department in 1887 was as follows: The expenditure is set out in the accounts of the board.1 The average of fires in London is something over 2000 a year. The staff consists of 674 officers and men. There are 55 chief fire engine stations and 50 steam fire engines. The force is an efficient one, but numerically far below the proportion to population of any other European capital. The estimated working expenses of the board for fire brigade purposes for the year, 1888, was £121,652.2 and open spaces. By their constituting Act the board were authorised to make Parks, applications to Parliament where it appeared to them that further commons, powers were required for the purpose of any work for the improvement of the metropolis or public benefit of the inhabitants. The power thus given was subsequently extended to applications to Parliament for the purpose of providing parks, pleasure-grounds, places of recreation and open space for the improvement of the metropolis or the public benefit of the inhabitants.* Powers as to commons were given by the Metropolitan Commons Act, 1866,5 which provided that the board should be the local authority with respect to any common, the whole or any part whereof was situate in the metropolis. It was enacted that no further application for the enclosure of any metropolitan common should be entertained by the Inclosure Commissioners." Provision was also made for the preparation of schemes for the management of these commons and the making of bye-laws. The board might present to the Inclosure Commissioners a memorial as to any common in the metropolis, whereupon the commissioners were to make inquiry and prepare a scheme which was to be subject to the confirmation of Parliament." The board has power under a later Act 10 to purchase and hold commonable rights in any metropolitan common. The board were also authorised to acquire and hold for the public, open spaces, gardens in squares" and disused burial |