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third and last three months, it was equal to 402.2 per cent.; the
average excess for the nine months being 201.3 per cent., as stated
above.
These facts and figures exhibiting as they do the irregular and
unsatisfactory way in which the Contractors may perform their work,
or may not perform it, almost with impunity, especially when
considered in connection with the firmness of your Sanitary Committee
in dealing with cases of proved neglect, &c., and the penalties
which they consequently inflict, together with the thorough supervision
which the work receives, so far as it is capable of control,
and the exertions of your Inspectors, have led me most irresistibly
to the conclusion that the Dusting Contracts of the parish are
never likely to be well carried out until the present system of
contracting is revised. In my opinion, therefore, an entire or
partial change is most desirable in order to secure a regular and
thoroughly efficient performance of this work, which is of such vast
importance in its bearing upon the health of the public.
The changes which have created this necessity and the
circumstances now attendant upon the collection of Dust as a
consequence, were so fully and graphically described by Dr.
Corfield, in the last Annual Report, that I do not purpose to do
more than advert to them here, my own remarks being intended
rather as a sequel which I desire to make of a remedial character;
for the evils inherent to the present system having now been more
than once plainly demonstrated, a cure should be sought and if
found should be promptly applied, as the symptons, I fear, are not
likely to become much, if at all, less aggravated by the lapse of
time. We have seen that it is too much to expect of the Contractors
that they should be able to resist the temptation which is offered to
them by the payment of a fixed sum for certain work over which a
complete control cannot be exercised by the Vestry, and which it is
therefore the interest of the Contractors to neglect if they can,
especially, as we have proved they do, towards the termination of
a contract, the profits being calculated not so much upon the
quantity of the worse than valueless article which they do remove,
but upon the quantity they can leave unremoved to the great
inconvenience, trouble and annoyance of all concerned, except