HC Deb 18 March 1902 vol 105 cc323-4
DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, N.)

I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that the Kent Waterworks Company have nearly completed a large pumping station in the parish of Darenth in the Darenth Valley, within 1,100 yards of the enclosure at Gore Farm, in which the Metropolitan Asylums Board have also nearly completed smallpox hospitals to hold a total of 2,500 cases; and that the pumping station is at a lower level than any part of this enclosure; and, seeing that these smallpox hospitals and the other establishments belonging to the Metropolitan Asylums Board at Gore Farm have no means of drainage for liquids other than soakage into the porous gravels and sands overlying the chalk strata from which the Kent Waterworks derive their supply, whether he will institute an inquiry into the effect on the quality of the water supply from this drainage, including that from the burial ground belonging to the Metropolitan Asylums Board at Gore Farm, in which between 1,500 and 1,600 interments of smallpox and scarlet fever patients have been made, this burial ground being situated 160 feet higher than, and 1,700 yards distant from, the Kent Waterworks Company's pumping station.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. WALTER LONG,) Bristol, S.

I am aware of the facts mentioned in the first paragraph of the Question. The well was approved by me in December last as a source of supply after an investigation by an Inspector and after samples of the water had been examined by experts and found to be of great organic purity. I am informed that there is no danger of the well being polluted by surface drainage as it is lined with closely fitting iron cylinders to a depth of 92 feet from the surface, the lower 60 feet being in the solid chalk. Moreover, I understand that Gore Farm drains into a subsidiary valley of the Darenth which enters the main valley fully half a mile below the site of the well, and it is therefore impossible for surface drainage from the Hospital lands to reach the vicinity of the well.

DR. FARQUHARSON

Will the right hon. Gentleman send down an inspector to make a local examination?

MR. WALTER LONG

An inspector was there last November, and samples of the water were submitted to analysis. I do not think it necessary to send again.

DR. FARQUHARSON

A good many things have happened since then.