§ DR. LUSHasked the President of the Local Government Board, If he is now prepared to state what steps he proposes to take to remedy the bad sanitary condition of the Epping Local Board District?
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTHSir, Epping is not a Local Board District. The Guardians have become the Sanitary 222 Authority under the Act of 1872. Since this Question was last addressed to me, I have received a Report from the Guardians showing that the rate of mortality in the District had been exaggerated, and that, if the workhouse be excluded from consideration, it was only at the rate of 19.13 per 1,000 during the six months ending December 1873, and is still lower in the present year. Great and unforeseen difficulties have arisen in the execution of the works of drainage and water supply undertaken by order of the Secretary of State some years ago, and these have been increased by the transfer of jurisdiction which has since been made. The Local Government Board have been urging upon the Guardians to take over the existing works, and render them available as far as possible for the purposes for which they were designed.