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enable them to store and dispose of it in a systematic manner.
I have had reason to draw attention to the disposal of refuse in
Mitcham, where it is cast upon a brickfield, in common with a
quantity from London, in such close proximity to dwellings that
a risk of danger to health seems to be involved.
XI.—CEMETERIES.
In the early part of the year a public enquiry was held at
Coulsdon, by an Inspector of the Local Government Board, into
the merits of a petition of the Council for a Provisional Order to
obtain, by compulsory purchase, a site for a cemetery for the
parish mentioned, this course having been prompted by the
Parish Council.
As indicated in the last annual report, much controversy
was involved in the matter. The site in question was one in
close proximity to the old churchyard, and had been selected
by the Council because the chalk soil, which is almost universal
in this neighbourhood, is there protected by a superincumbent
stratum of clayey composition, and also because the parishioners
had repeatedly expressed a wish to have the new burial ground
as near as possible to the old one.
The owner of the land objected to the selection of this site
as damaging to his estate, and before the local enquiry suggested
alternative sites, which, however, were objectionable, mainly
because their soil consisted of unprotected chalk, but at the close
of the enquiry he suggested another site on his estate, situated
some three-quarters of a mile from the old burial ground, which
appeared to be similar as regards composition of soil to the site
selected by the Council.
The Provisional Order was granted by the Local Government
Board, but when the matter came before the House of Commons,
and nothing unsatisfactory could be said as to the last-mentioned