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one hundred and fifty mews in the parish, irrespective of separate
stables; any one of which may become the cause of nuisance
from neglect to remove refuse. The regulations require such
removal three times a week, viz., on alternate days, and
the penalty for neglect, after notice has been served or
published directing such periodical removal, is twenty shillings
per day. Notice has been duly served on the several
premises, and your Vestry have directed further publication of
the regulations by posting them in the mews ; but more stringent
measures will be necessary before the evil complained of is
overcome, viz., by proceedings to enforce the penalties.
No doubt, as it is alleged, difficulty is sometimes, and at certain
seasons, experienced in getting the refuse removed; generally,
however, it is allowed to accumulate for the benefit of the occupiers
of stables or their servants. If the farmers who collect the
refuse could obtain it without cost when they want it, probably
they would collect it regularly, even at some inconvenience at
those periods of the year when it is of less value to them, and
when they are busily employed in agricultural operations. It must
of course be admitted that those who keep horses have the right
to make the most they can of their stable refuse (though I suspect
they rarely benefit by it personally), but they should comply
with the law. It might be well to enquire whether, as your
Vestry have the power under sec. 95 of 25 and 26 Vict., cap.
102, to collect and remove stable manure with the consent of
the owners thereof, it might not be advisable to undertake
the work, inasmuch as the addition of the refuse to ashes, etc.,
would increase the manurial value of the latter, and thus enable
your Vestry to obtain a better price for the material when the
day —not distant, probably—arrives when the services of contractors
will be dispensed with.
The faulty construction of dung-pits is a principal cause of
annoyance from collections of manure. I have urgently recommended
that so far as practicable the sunken dung pits found in
so many mews should be filled up and iron racks substituted.
There is not a greater nuisance than a reeking, steaming
sunken dung pit. They are rarely dry ; the contents are seldom
entirely cleared away, and they are placed under the windows
of the rooms in which the coachman and his family live. Only
less offensive than these are the ordinary brick and cement receptacles
mostly above ground—also difficult to clear and frequently
damp from want of drainage. In striking contrast to
these are the iron-rack receptacles in which the refuse being
fully exposed to the air and kept dry is almost entirely free
from ammoniacal or other unpleasant odour, even when kept for
long periods of time, as it does not ferment and rot. If the law
does not at present enable local sanitary authorities to prescribe
arrangements in matters of this sort, the sooner such powers are
conferred the better.