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164
HOUSE REFUSE.
The collection of ashes and miscellaneous refuse from
some 23,000 inhabited houses, in a district having an area of
2,200 acres, and to the extent of 39,869 loads in 1896-97, is no
light task. The work has been systematised by division of the
parish into districts, and provision has been made for inspection
of dust-bins and oversight of the dusting-gangs, the arrangements
being under the supervision of the Surveyor. A call is,
or should be, made at every house once a week, and, subject to
removal once a week only, further improvement is scarcely
possible until the objectionable practice of refuse-harbourage
shall have given place to the more rational system of daily, or
at any rate, frequent collection from moveable receptacles.
It need hardly be said that nuisance from house refuse
does not arise from the proper contents of the receptacle, viz.
ashes, but from the addition of matters of organic origin. With
the object of preventing, as far as practicable, nuisance from
this cause, a printed notice was ordered (in January) by your
Vestry to be served at every house by the dust inspectors,
calling the attention of householders to the danger, on
sanitary grounds, of vegetable and other objectionable refuse
being placed in the dust-bin, and asking that directions might
be given for all such refuse to be burned.
An increasing difficulty is experienced in finding accessible
shoots for house refuse, to the deposit of which within their
boundaries the Sanitary Authorities of other districts naturally
object. In previous reports I have intimated that a solution of
the difficulty of the sanitary disposal of the refuse would be
found in cremation, which could, under proper conditions, be
carried out successfully and innocuously. This view is supported
by the Medical Officer of Health and the Engineer to
the County Council, who, having made a thorough inquiry into
the subject of dust destructors, in accordance with an