§ MR. MATHER (Lancashire, S.E., Gorton)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether the Board in sanctioning any scheme for the treatment of sewage by Local Authorities invariably stipulates (and is required by Act of Parliament to do so) that the effluent must be passed over a certain acreage of laud before entering streams of rivers, whatever the degree of purification the effluent may have undergone by chemical or mechanical means; whether the acquisition of such land is, in many cases, very difficult and costly to the ratepayers; whether some sewage schemes most urgently needed have been delayed in consequence of the stipulation of the Hoard that land shall be acquired, regardless of the undertaking on the part of the Local Authorities to purify efficiently without land; and whether he will cause tin inquiry to be instituted by a Departmental Committee or otherwise into the recent improvements (since the Rivers Pollution Act was passed) in the chemical and mechanical treatment of sewage where applied and maintained in an efficient manner, with a view to relaxing the present uniform rule as to the acquisition of land in cases where the Local Authorities will undertake to apply such efficient treatment to the satisfaction of the Board, and subject to penalties which may be imposed by the Local Government Board (if necessary under the authority of Parliament) to prevent any imperfect application of the treatment so sanctioned?
§ * MR. H. H. FOWLERIt is the invariable practice of the Local Government Board to decline to sanction a loan for any scheme of sewerage or sewage disposal unless it provides that the sewage shall be purified by being passed through land before being discharged into a river or stream to which the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act, 1876, applies. They consider that the requirements of that Act would be contravened unless the sewage is so purified. The Board are fully aware that by means of chemical and mechanical treatment very much may now be done to aid in the purification of the sewage, and they, therefore, approve of a very much less area of land being provided when the authority propose to adopt such treatment; but they are not of opinion that these means alone, without the passing of the sewage through land, are sufficient. The acquisition of land for the purpose referred to is, no doubt, in some cases attended with difficulty, and it must increase the cost of the scheme. It is also the case that delay has in some cases been occasioned where sanctions to loans have been withheld pending arrangements being made for the acquisition of land. I have considered the question as to instituting an inquiry, but, apart from the difficulty of securing the services on such a Committee of men of the necessary scientific and practical knowledge who could give the requisite time for such an inquiry at places at a distance from London, I am not prepared at present to say that such an inquiry is necessary. The Inspectors of the Local Government Board, in connection with inquiries which they have to hold with regard to sewerage schemes, are carefully watching the processes which are proposed in aid of land.
§ * MR. CHANNING (Northampton, E.)Arising out of the question, may I ask whether the Reports of the Inspectors on the local inquiries could not be laid as a whole on the Table, so that we may know the result of their observation?
§ * MR. H. H. FOWLERWe cannot depart from the rule as to confidential Reports.
§ MR. MATHERCan I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether, in the case of a Local Authority having proved to demonstration that the chemical process can purify sewage equally well to that 1768 which is done by the chemical process plus the land treatment, the Department will not relax their stringent rules, and allow that Local Authority to employ the chemical treatment without land?
§ * MR. H. H. FOWLERWhen it has been proved to demonstration then that case will arise for consideration.