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that no ordinary means of purification will remove a sufficient
proportion of the urine, or of the organie matter from sewage,
to render it fit for forming part of what in summer time, and
with an ordinary rainfall, is almost an elongated stagnant pool
of sewage. In fact, years ago that part of the Lee which is in
Hackney Parish was little better than a sewer in summer time.
Dust Removal for the year 1889.—The number of loads
removed, and the cost of the removal, increases every year,
partly from the larger sums paid per load. The number of
loads removed in 1889 was 33,881, being an increase of 2,142
above those removed in 1888, and the wages paid to the men
employed by the Board was £748 14s. 7d., against
£701 13s. 11d. in 1888, so that the increase in wages was not
so great as in the number of loads removed. The sum paid to
the contractors amounted to £4,345 7s. 3d., against
£3,944 8s. 6d. in 1888. The amounts paid to the contractors
and our men plus the inspectors' salary make a total of
£5,203 5s. 10d., being an excess of £447 19s. 5d. above that in
1888. This is rather less than the estimated excess, which was
£500. There is not any sum payable, as in most parishes
and districts, for wharves on which to deposit, and for
barges to carry away the dust after it has been collected,
so that this sum, although large contrasts favourably
with the total cost in other parishes. As usual, the
number of loads removed from each sub-division were
olosely approximative, as there were 11,244 loads removed in
1889 from the A Division, against 10,442 in 1888; 11,567
loads in 1889 removed from the B Division, against
10,744 in 1888; and 11,070 loads removed in 1889 from the C
Division, against 10,555 in 1888. This close relation will not
last very long, as more houses are being built in the A and B
Divisions than in the C. The number of requests to remove
dust contrasts very favourably with some adjoining parishes, in
which a different system of collection and removal obtains.
The usual house-to-house visitations of many of the poorer