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34
strict compliance in respect to certain other regulations as to
cleanliness, the Cow-keepers have been informed by the Justices
that the renewal or otherwise of their licences will in a great
measure depend.
THE DUSTING OF THE PARISH, 1877-8.
The further improvement in the Dusting, which I anticipated
when my remarks having reference to the work of the previous year
were written, has been realised, the number of applications being
very considerably diminished, as will be seen on reference to Table
No. XIII. In this table only 13,858 applications, or complaints, are
tabulated as having been received between Lady Day, 1877, and
Lady Day, 1878, as against 22,671 received in the previous year
1876-7, and 36,867 in the year before, 1875-6, the Contractors' year
par excellence by its scandalous neglect.
The difference between these numbers is so strikingly great,
as to be quite obvious from the merest cursory glance. The bare
figures speak with an eloquence so trenchant and convincing, that
they will need no strengthening by arithmetical arguments, but the
following per centages may perhaps prove interesting.
In 1875-6 the applications were equal to 116.6per cent. of the
inhabited houses, in 1876-7 they were 71.7 per cent., and in the last
year, 1877-8, they were equal only to 43.8 per cent.
Of the 13,858 applications tabulated during this year, 9,486
were received by letter or postal cards, and 4,372 were made
personally or by message at the Vestry Hall, and although these
numbers are very favourable when contrasted with those of former
periods, I hope in course of time to see a still further very large
reduction. Admitting that circumstances must always prevent
their absolute extinction, there is certainly no reason, in my opinion,
for so large a number continuing to be received as an inevitable
adjunct of the work of Dusting.
It is, indeed, rather the necessity of this work that they should
be found to be gradually diminishing, for it is by these figures " en
masse " containing as they do the testimony of the many, that the
efficient, or inefficient, performance of the work must be tested and