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during the first six months, and this will be clearly seen on reference
being made to Table XVI., in which I have given a summary of the
statistics relating to this period. Now taking these tabulated
applications, as indeed we must in general, as an index to the
manner in which a Contract has been executed, we find that those
for the nine months, viz.:—9,656 were 1,474 less than the threefourths,
viz.:—11,130, of those for the previous twelve months of
which we retain a record and which amounted in the whole to
14,841. From this fact it may be rightly assumed that the shorter
contracts were not quite so badly carried out as the former ones,
but this favorable contrast can only be taken as applying to the
first six months, as nothing could possibly have been much worse
than it was during the last three months.
Repeated applications, or "second complaints," as well as
complaints of neglect, refusal, and incivility, were certainly of less
frequent occurrence, although your Sanitary Committee had occasion
to inflict penalties amounting to £53.
From the table of applications, as stated quarter by quarter, and
ward by ward, it will be seen that during the whole of the nine
months in question, Ward 4 was the best attended to, the number
of applications, viz.:—952 being actually the lowest of the eight
Wards, although owing to the quantity of dust which is made, it is
considered the heaviest in the parish, and the largest sum is always
paid to the Contractors for the work connected with it. Of the
952, however, 578 or more than three-fifths occurred during the last
three months, and to state this fact generally as it applies to each
Ward, as it has been already stated in respect to the whole parish,
it may be observed that all through the table more than one-half
of each total will be found to have been received during the last
three of the nine months, showing most forcibly the struggle in
which the Contractors now engage, by endeavouring to do no more
than they are compelled to do towards the end of their contracts,
and confining themselves as much as possible, as they certainly
appear to have done during these three months, to the carrying
out of the orders which they receive daily from the Vestry. I am
assured that as yet no attempt has even been made by any one
Contractor to do the last quarter's work in any other way than so