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16
Legal provision should be made for the daily removal of
the refuse in covered carts, and to facilitate collection
the refuse should be deposited in suitable
receptacles, which should be placed every morning
on the pavement in front of the house.
3. With respect to stable and cow-slied refuse. —The Nuisance
Authority has power under the 53rd section of the
Sanitary Act, 1866 (50th section of the Public Health
Act, 1875) to make regulations for the "periodical
removal" by the owner, of manure, &c., and an
ample penalty, twenty shillings per day, is provided
for default. Nevertheless, where regulations exist
they are rarely carried out strictly, for this reason
among others, that it is found difficult to get
Justices to inflict the penalties for neglect or default
Of late years the difficulty of procuring the removal of the
refuse has considerably increased, owing to the
growth of London and the greater distances to
the fields and market gardens. Formerly stable
manure was in request by market gardeners, who
paid a good price for it. Now, horse owners generally
have to pay for its removal, or at best to give
it away. It is often difficult, moreover, to get it
removed on any terms, for as a rule it is conveyed
in vehicles returning from the markets ; and at
certain seasons of the year, e.g., hay-making and
harvest-time, it is practically impossible to get the
farmers to send their carts so regularly as is necessary
for compliance with the regulations.
"With the permission of the owner" the Nuisance
Authority may collect the refuse: but the Committee
are of opinion that the Nuisance Authority should
have the same right everywhere as in the City of
London* to collect it when the owner is in default,
and to charge him with the cost of so doing.
There is good ground for believing that many
horse owners would be glad to be relieved of the
difficulty and responsibility of their position under
the " regulations," and would be willing to pay a
reasonable compensation to the Nuisance Authority
to cover the cost of the removal of the refuse. The
* City of London Sewers Act, 1851, 14 & [5 Vic., cap. 91, sec. 8.