Volume 1

Second report.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the State of Large Towns.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    47/518 (page 35)
    acquirements of their officers for the necessary skill in the Drainage. planning and efficient execution of the works. Quaiifi^ukms of Before such extensive works of drainage as we have shown officers’ to be requisite for the cure of the existing evils are carried into execution, it will be necessary to provide some security for the appointment of officers of higher qualifications than have hitherto been required of persons intrusted with these duties. In the course of our observations on the operations of the Causes of tho Highway Act, we have already pointed out some defects, t^SSIlngdass arising from the surveyors under that Act being subject to an ofofficers- annual election, an uncertainty in the tenure of office, which most materially interferes with its efficient execution. By the the provisions of this Act, the office of surveyor is made com- pulsory, and the person elected by the vestry is rendered liable to a penalty of 20/. for refusing to undertake it. No qualifications of knowledge or especial skill can be required under such circumstances. We apprehend, however, that in populous parishes, advantage is sometimes, though but rarely, taken of the clause enabling the vestry to appoint a person of “ skill and experience” whose services they have power to to remunerate with a salary ; but he also is only an annual officer. It is scarcely possible to obtain the services of an efficient and skilful officer, unless he be secured against a capricious removal from his office, and the annual election to which the surveyors of highways are now subject, naturally deters men of competent ability from aspiring to it. The most efficient men, finding ready occupation elsewhere, reject such employments: they are necessarily undertaken by men little qualified for the duties, who possibly, having been un- fortunate in some other business, are glad to obtain, by the support of a numerous body of friends, any description of employment.* The local Acts are uniformly more deficient than the High- way Act in requiring any qualifications; they do not advert to the necessity of “ skill and experience,” and many of them even omit to allude to the office of surveyor. The importance of ensuring due qualifications of skill and experience, and rendering the officers sufficiently independent, has been strongly urged upon us by persons who have had great experience of the present mode of appointment, and the insufficiency of the works executed by the present class of * Sheffield, Second Report, vol. ii.; evidence of Mr. Dean, First Report, vol. ii. p. 416.