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42
making themselves acquainted with their districts, has been a serious
difficulty with which we have had to contend. Owing to these causes
the total numbers are less than in the previous year, and we have
also further diminished them by omitting altogether in the Table
the visits (not now so numerous as formerly) which were made by
the Inspectors to the no Courts and Alleys in the Parish, which up
to the commencement of this period had been cleansed by Contractors
who required to be well and constantly looked after. This constant
supervision has not been required, inasmuch as the cleansing was
more regularly and far better carried out under the direction of the
Highways Committee by the Roadsmen in the service of the Vestry,
while on the other hand the Inspectors were able to pay far more
attention to the condition of the houses in these places.
The cause which mainly led the Sanitary Committee to recommend
that the Courts should not continue to be cleansed by Contract,
deserves to be mentioned as bearing upon the contract system.
In the years 1865, 1866, and 1867 the prices obtained for the
work were £99 3s. 4d., £125, and £120 respectively, and these
sums certainly yielded a not inconsiderable profit, as in time it had
become known that the one solitary man who was supposed to do the
whole of the work and was handed over regularly to the new Contractor
was paid but £1 per week, while the carting away of the
refuse was never more than a nominal matter.
In 1868 a fresh Contractor appeared who obtained the Contract,
receiving £120 for that year. He continued to hold it at first by
running down the prices to £99 in 1869, £94 in 1870, and to £89
in 1871. Competition then ceased and the same Contractor was
allowed to receive in the two following years 1872 and 1873, £235,
and £285 respectively, only two Contractors tendering in the former
year, and four in the latter. He would also have received for the
year under review (1874) £324, his tender being again the lowest of
the four graduated ones presented, but for the fact that the Committee
wisely determined to recommend the Vestry not to accept that or
any other tender, but to do the work through their Committee of
Highways instead. Subsequently a Contractor who had not previously
tendered, kindly offered to do the work for £140, or £184 less than
the lowest tender previously received, but the ingenuous offer was
declined, and the Contractors who had taken part in the previous