HC Deb 22 February 1875 vol 222 cc624-5
MR. P. A. TAYLOR

asked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether his attention has been called to the following statement made by Dr. Sandwith in "The Times" of the 11th instant:— At a large West-end Club the drinking water supplied by a certain Water Company left such abundant deposits of mud in the cisterns that it was necessary frequently to clean them. I saw large cakes of this dried mud, which had a peculiarly offensive appearance; a portion of it was sent to an eminent analyst, and he found it to consist of various unwholesome débris and of a considerable quantity of human excrement; and, whether he is in a position to make any statement calculated to diminish the alarm which such an allegation must excite?

MR. SCLATER-BOOTH

The letter, Sir, which appeared in The Times on the 11th of February did attract my attention, and I have been since that date in frequent communication with the Metropolis Water Examiner on the subject. He has been investigating the structural arrangements of the club in question—["Name!"]—it is a Pall Mall Club—and I hope in a day or two to receive his Report. With regard to the second part of the Question, considering how the matter is neglected, I am unable to make any statement which will be reassuring to the public as to what the condition of the tanks, cisterns, and pipes within their own control may be; but I may state that the water supplied by the company referred to has been during the past month in a wholesome state, as appears by the analysis recently published. The water of the company is peculiarly liable to pollution in time of flood, and great complaints were made of it in the early part of December. I then caused an official inquiry and analysis to be made, under the statutory powers of the Local Government Board, and the company have in consequence introduced a Bill which will enable them greatly to improve their intake, and to provide large additional subsiding tanks. This they would have been glad to do two years ago, but the Bill then introduced for the purpose was thrown out on the second reading.