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177
having (as I had pointed out in a report dated April 9th, 1884)
'power, and indeed, being required, when called upon, to
remove the refuse of any trade upon the application, and at
the cost of the owner or occupier of any house, etc. In'" the
same report it was submitted that the provisions of "the 128th
Section of the Metropolis Management Act (re-enacted in
Section 33 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891) would
apply in the case of trades which lead to the production of refuse
of an offensive character." The subject had been fully dealt
with in the aforementioned annual report for 1887, pp. 176-189,
of which a copy was forwarded to every member of the County
Council in 1889. My opinion was, that the sanitary authority
should "undertake the removal, at the cost of the owner, of
all such refuse matters of animal or vegetable origin, as might
become offensive and dangerous to health; and that in the
interests of public health the producers of such refuse should be
compelled to employ the staff of the sanitary authority in its
removal." Very generally, I believe, they would be only too
pleased to do so. In this connection, it may be mentioned
that in 1880, the licensees of slaughter-houses presented a
memorial to your Vestry, representing that—
"For some time the trade has laboured under the greatest difficulty with
regard to the removal of offal and manure from the different slaughterhouses,"
and as this difficulty was on the increase, they begged that your
Vestry "would take some immediate steps to arrange for carts to call at
the slaughter-houses in the early part of the morning, and convey the
refuse to some proper place where it could be deposited"—
a service for which the butchers were willing to pay.
The memorial was referred to the sanitary committee, which
deferred consideration of its prayer pending an intended visit
to Leeds to view a "destructor" in operation. But no action
was taken in the matter. If my views are correct, persons
carrying on trades involving the production of refuse are entitled
to "require" the sanitary authority to remove their
their refuse on payment of a "reasonable sum for such