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15
utilization for various trade purposes. Of these the
manufacture of bricks is the most important; and
it is, perhaps, not too much to say that the diligence
of the contractor in carrying out his contract is
governed to no inconsiderable extent by the season
of the year and by the demands of the brickmaker,
so that the dust-bins are apt to be neglected when
their contents are not in requisition in the brickfield.
The Committee consider, however, that the removal of
house refuse ought not to depend upon its pecuniary
value, but should be regarded from the sanitary
rather than the commercial point of view, and they
are of opinion that the time is at hand when the
Nuisance Authority will have to adopt the process
of refuse-destruction by fire, in specially constructed
apparatus, such for instance as is in operation at
many great provincial centres of population, as
Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Warrington, &c.,
&c. The mere reduction in bulk resulting from
this process (some 70 to 80 per cent.) is in itself a
great gain, so that in the event of no practicable
means of utilizing the products of combustion—slag
and dust—being found, the quantity of perfectly
innocuous matter to be disposed of would be relatively
small. This is a very important factor in the case,
having regard to the limited facilities for water
carriage, and to the exorbitant, not to say prohibitory,
cost of railway carriage. The slag, however, is
useful for making up roads, and ground into powder
and mixed with lime it makes a valuable mortar,
which in the provincial towns finds a ready sale
at a remunerative price.
The combustion apparatus might be made available for the
destruction of vegetable refuse and of infected
articles; and probably it would suffice for the
destruction of small quantities of animal refuse,
failing any scheme for its utilization."
The Committee, in concluding this section of their report,
desire to place on record their disapproval of the
present system of storing house refuse in "dustbins"
in close proximity to dwelling-houses, a
system unjustifiable on Sanitary principles, and
productive of nuisance at every stage.