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20
DUST REMOVAL.
The supervision of the contracts for the removal of dust and
ashes has taken up a large amount of valuable time as usual.
The communications received and attended to during the year
amounted to upwards of two thousand, and the notices issued to
the contractors during 8 months, to March, 187), were 1031,
viz.:—419 in the North District, and 612 in the South. One of
the contractors was fined for neglect of duty in certain proved
cases, but not heavily. It would be to the public advantage if
those persons who make an improper use of their dust receptacles,
or who refuse to have the contents of them removed, were also
subject to some penalty. As I have so frequently pointed out
the dust itself is not a nuisance in a Sanitary sense. It is the
decomposing animal and vegetable matter deposited in the bins
that is the cause of offence Occasionally the inspectors find the
most serious nuisances arising from the presence of grease, pot
liquor, bones, meat, &c , and in summer weather, too, when little
dust is made. Naturally the greater the nuisance the more
urgent the complaint, the more instant the demand for removal.
It is only just in referring to this matter to mention that in many
of these cases the greatest offenders are those who complain of the
Vestry's "neglect." The moment the hot weather sets in, we are
inundated with complaints which prove at once the contractor's
negligence, and that the receptacles are used for purposes for
which they were never intended, and for which their position, in
a majority of cases, unfits them, if there were no other objection.
But to continue. Accumulations of dung, stagnant water,
animal and other refuse have been removed upon 79 occasions,
viz:—48 in the North, and 31 in the South. With reference
to this subject I am of opinion that in many parts of the parish
the dung in mews, &c., is not removed so often or so regularly as
might be desired, and that the regulations issued by your Yestry
should be conspicuously and permanently exhibited in mews, and
enforced. Under the head of "animals improperly kept and
removed," I need hardly say that the principal work has been, as
usual, in the Potteries, the "animals" dealt with being pigs. A
great number have been "removed;" but very often only to be
succeeded by others Nevertheless the number of places in which
pigs are kept, and the number of pigs is greatly diminished; so
that, in fact, the principal complainants are those persons who
having got rid of their pigs, and abolished the styes, feel aggrieved
that their neighbours are not more vigorously pursued. The
fault does not rest with my department, but is due rather to the
defects of the law. Legal proceedings in this and other matters
were undertaken in the Police Court, in 61 cases (48 of them being
in the North District) and with uniform success, but often with
the loss of much valuable time.