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owners of the manure, who are unable to secure its removal
at sufficiently frequent intervals to prevent it becoming
offensive.
I cannot but believe that were the Vestry themselves to
undertake the duty of thus removing the manure, and were
to charge a small fee for doing so, they would not by this
action increase the rates, but would confer a considerable
boon upon the parish.
The report to which I refer appears to me of sufficient
importance to warrant me in asking your leave to append
it to my report:—
1. With respect to trade refuse.—The Metropolis Local
Management Act (18 & 19 Vict. cap. 120, sect. 128)
entitles the owner or occupier of any house or land
to require the "scavenger" to remove the refuse of
any trade, manufacture, business, &c., on payment
of a reasonable sum by way of compensation; but
the Nuisance Authority, which by its own staff or by
its "contractor" is the "scavenger," has at
present no power to remove trade refuse, whatever its
nature or condition, excepting on the requisition of
the owner or occupier as aforesaid. The Committee,
however, are of opinion that as the refuse of
slaughter-houses and the refuse of the trades of
fishmonger, poulterer, greengrocer, &c., being of
animal or vegetable origin and liable to decomposition,
would, if not speedily removed from the
premises, become a "nuisance and injurious to
health," the Nuisance Authority should have power
as well as obligation to collect, remove, and dispose
of such refuse, and should receive reasonable
compensation for so doing.
In the City of London the Nuisance Authority (Commissioners
of Sewers), as a matter of fact, collect trade
refuse—animal and vegetable —receiving payment;
and the Committee are informed by the Medical
Officer of Health that the Commissioners have under
consideration a scheme for its profitable utilization
—a scheme which is the more likely to succeed, as
the Commissioners will have to deal with large and
regular supplies. It is open to question whether the
Nuisance Authority in a district not having public