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63
cleared "three times a week," particularly in warm weather, and in
thickly populated localities, or when the mews are close to houses,
and especially wherever sunken dung-pits are found. Rather than
submit to the inconvenience of carrying out these regulations, which
are strictly necessary in a sanitary point of view, many horseowners
would gladly avail themselves of your Vestry's staff:
and it might be reasonably expected that the system would in
course of time become self-supporting and even remunerative.
The number of mews in the parish is 148. In too many of the
mews, &c., dung pits are sunk in the ground ; and wherever these
are found nuisance is sure to arise, not only in the locality, but also
in the course of removal. We have had occasion to serve notices for
filling up of such receptacles, and for the providing of racks above
the surface of the mews. It would be well if this system could be
generally introduced ; for, although the brick dung pit of ordinary
construction is an improvement on the covered pit, it is liable
to become a nuisance if neglected, and especially if it is not
drained. The iron rack on the other hand admits the air freely,
and allows the straw to dry, so that unless the manure is suffered
to become rotten in the stable, no unpleasantness is caused by it
either in the receptacle, or at the time of removal.
PARLIAMENTARY.
A Bill of considerable importance called the " Public Health
(Metropolis) Bill, 1877," was introduced into the House of Commons
late in the Session, (1877), and met with great opposition
from the Sanitary Authorities of the Metropolis, on various grounds.
The mode in which this Bill was introduced, and read a second
time even, viz, as a blank sheet of paper, the Bill not having
been printed, excited much disapproval as the principle of a
measure is usually supposed to be affirmed by its passing a second
reading. It was supposed also that the Bill would increase the
power of the Local Government in two ways, viz., (1) by giving
them extraordinary rights of interference in the event of default by
sanitary authorities in the execution of their duties; the Board
apparently to be the judge of such default: and (2) by transferring
to the Board certain powers originally exercised by the Privy
Council and the Home Secretary. To the general surprise,
however, it transpired that these latter powers had been transferred
to the Board by the Act, by which the Board was constituted in its
present state, and known as the Local Government Board Act,
(1871). In previous sections of the present report, I have
referred to certain clauses of the Bill dealing with hospital accommodation
for cases of infectious disease (page 10), and the " byelaws
for the regulation of Dairies and Cowsheds" (page 59),
&c. I pass on therefore to notice some other subjects, one of the
most important being the power proposed to be conferred on the