The Sewerage

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THE SEWERAGE.

We learn that the opinion of Nicholas Hill, Esq.,¹ one of the most eminent consulting lawyers in the State, has been taken on the question of the constitutionality of the law creating the Water Commissioners the Commissioners of Sewers for the city of Brooklyn; and that Mr. Hill's opinion, which will be submitted to the Common Council on Monday, completely controverts that of the Corporation Counsel, and affirms the validity and constitutionality of the law. This we presume will be decisive, and satisfactory to the Common Council. It was well that the question of the constitutionality of the law was raised, in order that it might be set at rest before thousands of dollars were expended under it. This point being settled, we presume the Commissioners will proceed with their work without further delay.

We do not presume that in a city like Brooklyn, every part of which, we suppose, stands on a grade capable of being drained into adjacent running water, there can be any serious difference of opinion as to the practicability and advisability of effecting a complete system of sewerage as soon as the people can afford to pay for it. Whether they are now in a position to bear the expense, is a question on which there may well be two opinions. But when we bear in mind that improvements of this kind, though costly in themselves, invariably repay the owners of property three, four or tenfold in the additional value imparted to their lots, it is not easy to show valid cause why we cannot now afford to undergo the requisite taxation. The water supply, now on the eve of introduction, while it would facilitate the working of the sewers, would also be likely to become a nuisance without the sewers to carry off the waste water. Many of our streets now are turned into beds of rivulets and brooks in winter, for want of facilities for carrying off the superfluous water; and this nuisance would be aggravated by the introduction of an abundant water supply, unless accompanied by an efficient system of sewers.

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