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manure, &c. Should cow-sheds become the subject of legislation,
and precise regulation thereunder, it would be desirable to provide
for a notice being posted, outside the premises, some days
before the annual licensing day, the same as is done in the case of
public-houses, and as ought to be done in respect of slaughterhouses,
so that householders in the vicinity might, if necessary,
attend and show cause against the renewal of the license.
BAKEHOUSES.
The bakehouses, 108 in number—viz., 60 in the North and 48
in the South district—have been regularly inspected during the
year, and the provisions of the Act relating to them carried out
as efficiently as circumstances would admit.
Complaints arising out of the neglect of Contractors to fulfil
the duty of
DUST REMOVAL
occupied, as usual, an inordinate amount of time in the way of
inspection, correspondence and clerical work, the letters, and other
communications received during the year being 5,891, viz., 2,560
in the North, and 3,331 in the South district. The actual number
of complaints was 1,010, viz., 357 in the North, and 653 in the
South contract district; while the orders issued for the removal of
dust were 10,177, viz., 3,868 in the North District, and 6,309 in
the South. The vexatious difficulties attending this important
question led your Vestry to consider again the possibility of dispensing
with the assistance of contractors; but no result has
hitherto come out of the trouble that was taken by a Committee
and by the Clerk of the Vestry to solve the difficulty. The same
as with respect to the mortuary and the disinfecting chamber,
the lack of a suitable site for the storing of the dust in the intermediate
stage between the dust-bins and the final disposition
of their contents, has practically rendered nugatory all the labour
bestowed on the question. Towards the close of the contract
year the complaints became so numerous that your Vestry not only
employed a staff of horses, carts, and men to make up for the
deficiencies of the contractor (and at his expense) but, also,
imposed heavy pecuniary penalties. A somewhat curious result
of this strictly equitable and, in fact, unavoidable severity was, that
the new contractors for the North district expressed unwillingness
to sign the contract, and did not sign it for a period of three
months, during which time, as they preferred to set about their
work in their own way, which only brought matters right after a
considerable interval, the complaints in this district became
very numerous, and the difficulty experienced in the first quarter of
1875 in the South district, was, in the second quarter, transferred
to the North. But as not seldom happens, so in this case—out
of evil came good, for your Vestry temporarily appointed, at
my request, a Dust Inspector, whose services having given