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184
Attention had been called in the monthly reports, from
time to time, to the special offensiveness of stable refuse where
peat litter is used, and the suggestion had been made that
where it is used, the proviso to the bye-law should not apply.
On consideration of the Council's letter, I advised that the
question asked should be answered in the affirmative, and the
sanitary committee reported a recommendation in support of
the proposal to abolish the proviso. Their report was referred
back for further consideration, but after such further consideration
the committee saw no reason for varying their
recommendation, which, nevertheless, was rejected by
your Vestry.*
That a well-nigh insupportable nuisance arises in connection
with the use of peat litter, cannot be reasonably
denied by any one cognizant of the facts. It is not usual to
drain stables where it is used: the peat would stop the drains.
It has, moreover, the property of sucking up liquid excreta
like a sponge, the result being that the refuse as it leaves the
stable is more or less wet. Nevertheless, at this point of
time, the litter, if not kept in the stable too long, is not
necessarily very offensive. But after a short detention in the
usual brick receptacle it acquires a stink of its own, scarcely
at all suggestive of the smell proper to peat, or to horse excreta.
This stink is especially manifested when the refuse is
disturbed in process of removal from the receptacle to the
wagon—the bottom layer in the receptacle forming the top
layer of the load. With a view to reduce the annoyance to
*The committee had before them a number of letters from
parishioners making complaint of the nuisance arising in the removal of peat
manure (vide Minutes of the Vestry, 1898, pp. 406-7). Their recommendation was—
"That the London County Council be informed that this Vestry concur in the
desirability of the bye-law referred to in their letter being extended so as to include
the removal of peat litter within its provisions." An amendment was
carried in the Vestry (by 33 to 22) that before the word "concur," the words
"do not" be inserted.