On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom/Appendix
APPENDIX.
Statement of the efforts made between 1855 and 1868 to obtain from Parliament a general and effectual Law against the Pollution of Streams.
1855.
Attempt to get Clause 24 of Nuisances Removal Bill extended.In 1855, when the "Nuisances Removal Bill" of Sir Benjamin Hall (the late Lord Llanover) was passing through Committee, Mr. Adderley, Mr. Henley, and Lord Robert Grosvenor attempted, but unsuccessfully, to get Clause 24 (which imposed a penalty of £ 200 for the discharge of gas refuse into the rivers) extended, so as to include[1] all manufacturing refuse of a foul, and poisonous nature.
1861.
Formation of the Fisheries Preservation Association.Early in 1861 a number of noblemen and gentlemen associated themselves together under the name of the "Fisheries Preservation Association," for the purpose (among other objects they had in view) of obtaining an enactment against the "poisoning and polluting of rivers."
1861.
Passing of Salmon Fishery Act.In the Session of this year (1861), through the instrumentality in a great measure of this Association, the Salmon Fishery Act for England and Wales (24 and 25 Vic, cap. 109) was obtained, and it contained a clause (Section 5) which at the time it was hoped would prove effectual in preventing the pollution of rivers.
1863.
Joint Deputation to Lord Palmerston.Experience having shown, however, that the Act (a most valuable and effective one in other respects) was inoperative as regarded such pollutions, in August, 1863, a joint deputation from the Sanitary Associations of Great Britain and the Fisheries Preservation Association went up to Lord Palmerston, and urged his Lordship to introduce a Government measure to put an effectual stop to the nuisance.
1864.
Joint Letter to Lord Palmerston.On the 4th March, 1864, the same Associations, by their Presidents and Vice-Presidents, Lords Ebury and Shaftesbury, and Lords Saltoun and Llanover, addressed to Lord Palmerston a joint letter (from which extracts have been made at pp. 12—14 ante), "entreating his Lordship to lose no time in proposing such measures as might seem best adapted to prevent the spread of this enormous evil."
1864-5.
Memorials to Home Secretary.In the same year (1864) and beginning of 1865, the boroughs of Nottingham, Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester, Preston, Coventry, Derby, Wolverhampton, Bath, Huddersfield, York, Stockport, Cheltenham, and Oxford, and the Rotherham and Kimberworth Board of Health, all memorialised (as set forth at pp. 16-20) the Home Secretary to carry out the recommendation (before given at p. 16) of the Committee of the House of Commons of 1864, viz., "that the important object of freeing the entire basins of rivers from pollution should be rendered possible by general legislative enactment."
1865.
Petitions to Parliament.In this year (1865) also petitions against the pollution of rivers, most numerously signed, were presented to Parliament by the late Lord Llanover, then President of the Fisheries Preservation Association, in the one House, and by Mr. Martin Tucker Smith in the other, from Shrewsbury, Richmond, Twickenham, Machynlleth, &c., &c.
24 Feb. 1865.
Earl of Longford, in the Lords, inquires if Government intends to carry out recommendations of Committee of 1864.
Hansard, 3rd Series, vol. 177, pp. 636 to 641.On the 24th February, 1865, the Earl of Longford, in the House of Lords, called the attention of Government to the beforementioned recommendation of the Commons' Select Committee of 1864, and enquired whether it was the intention of Government to carry into effect that recommendation, the reply of Lord Granville, on the part of the Government, being that "the Home Office was in communication with Lord Robert Montagu, who had introduced a measure on the subject into the other House, and he (Lord Granville) hoped a satisfactory measure would be framed."
March, 1865.
Lord Robert Montagu moves second reading of River Waters Protection Bill.
Hansard, 3rd Series, vol. 177, p. 1309.On the 8th March following, Lord Robert Montagu, in a most able and exhaustive speech, moved the second reading of the "River Waters Protection" Bill.
This Bill, however, owing to strong objections being felt by the House to its machinery, was, in deference to a generally expressed wish, withdrawn, though at the same time the enormous extent and dangerous nature of the nuisance it sought to arrest, and the pressing necessity for legislative action, were admitted to have been fully established by Lord Robert Montagu's masterly exposition.
17th March, 1865.
Deputation from Fisheries Preservation Association to Home Secretary.On the 17th of the same month a deputation from the Fisheries Preservation Association, including in it Lords Robert Montagu and Ebury and other influential persons, had an interview with the Home Secretary, when it most earnestly represented to Sir George Grey the urgent need there was for the Government, on the supreme ground of the public health, and in the interest of the fisheries, taking prompt and energetic steps to abate an evil which had now become so vast and in every way so baneful.
18th May 1865.
Issue of the Royal Commission on the Pollution of Rivers.The result of this interview was the issuing by Sir George Grey on the 18th May following of a Royal Commission "to inquire into the best means of preventing the pollution of rivers.
Extracts from the several reports of this Commission on the Thames, the Lea, and the Aire and Calder have been given at pages 25—27, 28—30, 32—38.
1866.29 & 30 Vic, c. 89.
Thames Navigation Act (short title).In the Session of 1866 the "Thames Navigation Act" (29 and 30 Vic, cap. 89) passed, containing certain provisions for freeing the river between Staines and Cricklade, in Wilts, near its source, from sewage and noxious and offensive refuse; and in the same Session also another 1866.
29 & 30 Vic, c. 319.
Thames Purification Act (short title).Act (29 and 30 Vic, cap. 319) was passed, intituled "An Act for the purification of the River Thames, by the diversion therefrom of the sewage of Oxford, Abingdon, Reading, Kingston, Richmond, Twickenham, Isleworth and Brentford, and for the collection and utilization of the sewage."
This latter Act empowered certain persons therein named, who were willing at their own expense to divert the sewage from the river, to incorporate themselves into a company for that purpose. No company, however, appears to have been formed nor anything done under the powers of this Act.
1867.
30 Vic, c. 101.
"Thames Conservancy Act " (short title).In 1867 an Act was passed conferring on the Conservators of the Thames the same powers for preventing the pollution of the river between Staines and the western boundary of the metropolis, as had been conferred on them by the Thames Navigation Act of the previous year, as regarded the portion of the river between Staines and Cricklade near its source; but it would seem from the subsequent statements made by Sir George Bowyer (on the motion of Mr. Cave for leave to bring in a Bill for the Conservancy of the River Lea—(Times Report, 21st February, 1868) that this Act and the previous Act of 1866 were quite inoperative as regarded the exclusion of sewage from the river, the towns on it. Sir George remarked, "having done nothing to exclude it, and they declared that they could not be compelled to exclude it."
7th June, 1867.
Salmon Fishery Congress at South KensingtonOn the 7th June of this year the great Salmon Fishery Congress assembled at the Horticultural Gardens, South Kensington. It was presided over by Earl Percy (now the Duke of Northumberland), and consisted of noblemen and gentlemen from all parts of the kingdom, interested in the fisheries as conservators, proprietors, &c. Mr. Frank Buckland and Mr. Spencer Walpole, the Inspectors of Salmon Fisheries for England and Wales, also attended it, as did Major Scott and Captain Spratt, the Special Commissioners of Fisheries, the President (Lord de Blaquiere), and various members of the Council of the Fisheries' Preservation Association being likewise present and taking active part in the proceedings.
The subject of the pollution of rivers and its destructive effect on the public health and on the fish, and the inefficacy of existing laws to meet the grievance having been very largely dwelt upon by the Chairman, (Lord Percy), and by every speaker who took part in the discussion, the following resolution was moved by Mr. Higford Burr (one of the Council of the Fisheries Preservation Association) and carried unanimously:—
Unanimous Resolution passed that further legislation is urgently needed to prevent pollutions."That as various rivers are seriously injured both by liquid and solid poisonous matters, and as it is necessary for the public health and supply of food for the people, that the pollutions should be prevented, further legislation is urgently needed."
6th August, 1867.
Deputation from Fisheries Preservation Association to the Home Secretary.On the 6th of the following August another deputation from the Fisheries Preservation Association, including Lord Northwick and other influential persons, members of Parliament and others, waited on Mr. Gathorne Hardy, the Secretary of State, and again earnestly pressed on the attention of Government, the absolute necessity that existed of putting a stop to the pollution of the rivers by some effectual measure to be introduced by the Government. Whereupon the deputation had the satisfaction of receiving from the Declaration of Home Secretary, &c.
[The Field Report, 10th Aug., 1867.Home Secretary the assurance "that he did not intend to continue the investigation, as he believed the experience gained by the inquiries into a few rivers would govern the whole, and that he would, during the forthcoming recess, give the whole subject his best consideration."
1868 Lea Conservancy Bill. Times Report, 21st Feb., 1868.On the 20th February of the present session (1868) the Right Hon. Stephen Cave, the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, on the part of the Government, brought forward the River Lea Conservancy Bill, based on the recommendations respectively of the Committee of 1866 on the East London Water Bills and of the Pollution of Rivers Commissioners, the object being the preservation of the purity of the water of the Lea. The bill was read a first time, and Mr. Cave was to give notice of the second reading.
Ibid.On this occasion Mr. Powell said "he hoped that would not be the only bill of its class the Government would introduce during the present session, but that they would grapple with the case of the Aire and Calder, which urgently demanded attention, the population in the basin of which exceeded a million, whereas that occupying the basin of the Lea was only about a quarter of a million."
Times Report, 25th Feb., 1868.On the 24th of the same month Mr. Candlish, the member for Sunderland, inquired in the House of Commons of the Home Secretary if he meant to introduce a measure this session to prevent the pollution of rivers, or to prevent solids being deposited in rivers.
The reply of Mr. Gathorne Hardy was—
"That he was not prepared to legislate on the subject this session.
"It was his intention to appoint a new Commission to inquire into those parts of the subject which had not yet been investigated, and he did not think it advisable to deal with only a part of the question."
- ↑ Hansard, 3rd Series, vol. 139, pp. 671-672.