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28
with certain allowances during illness; six days holiday were allowed
them during the year, and a gratuity of 2s. 6d. per man was given
on the occasion of one of their holidays towards their day's expenses.
Their application was considered by your Board on the 10th October,
1876, when it was resolved to give the whole of the men an additional
2s. per week each, making their wages £1 per week for the gangers,
and 18s. per week for the sweepers, on condition that they be employed
simply as ordinary labourers : that no allowance be made during
illness and no holidays given, and that the men be paid only for the
time they are actually at work.
Street Washing.
It frequently happens during the summer season, after a succession
of several dry days, that the dirt on the paved carriageways becomes of
an extremely sticky and adhesive nature. At the morning sweeping
the loose dust only, which lies on the surface, can be removed,
subsequently the streets are watered—the dirt becomes mud—is
worked up by the traffic—and the street obtains the appearanceof not
having been cleansed.
To obviate this, your Board took power in your last contracts for
watering and removal of slop, to wash the main thoroughfares of the
District when they became in this dirty condition. This washing has
been performed on several occasions with satisfactory results.
Street Watering.
The public ways of the District were watered under contract; the
contractor supplying all carts, horses, and drivers required, at a fixed
price for the whole work per annum.
It had been the custom of your Board in previous years to let the
contract for street watering, in the spring of each year, immediately
before the watering season commenced. During the past year it was
considered desirable to let this work at the same time as the contracts
for the scavenging and dusting, and this was accordingly done.

It will be seen by this table, that 869,000 gallons more water were
used last year thaai in the previous year, and at a less total cost.