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83
Now this could not be possible were the apparent increase
per head actually contributed by each head of population unless
the population per house had been steadily and rapidly diminishing.
And this we know to be not the case.
It follows, then, that the increase has occurred in that class
of house where the population (number of persons) per house is
less than the average.
If, in fact, there be any houses increasingly contributing to
what is removed as domestic refuse where the number of persons
per house has not increased, and where the number of persons is
disproportionate to the amount of refuse contributed, such cases
would explain the phenomenal increase.
This is readily seen if it be imagined that half-a-dozen warehouses
at one time contributed, say, one-sixth of the total refuse
of the district, and at a subsequent period the same number of
warehouses contributed, say, one-fourth of the total, although the
total number of houses of all classes had increased. Warehouses
having a small population per house, we should here have a case in
which the amount of refuse per head had increased in excess of the
amount per house, due to the fact that the warehouses had
increased their proportion of refuse contribution.
With these facts and considerations before me, I directed
that a return should be made to me by the Dust Inspectors of the
amount of refuse contributed by business premises as compared
with that of private dwellings.
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