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115
Beg to report as follows:—
"1. With respect to trade refuse. The Metropolis Local
Management Act (18 & 19 Vict. cap. 120, sect. 128) entitles
the owner or occupier of any house or land to require the
"scavenger" to remove the refuse of any trade, manufacture,
or business, etc. on payment of a reasonable sum by way of
compensation; but the Nuisance Authority, which by its
own staff, or by its ' contractor' is the 'scavenger,' has at
present no power to remove trade refuse, whatever its nature
or condition, excepting on the requisition of the owner or
occupier as aforesaid. The Committee, however, are of
opinion that, as the refuse of slaughter-houses and the refuse
of the trades of fishmonger, poulterer, greengrocer, etc. (being
of animal or vegetable origin and liable to decomposition),
would, if not speedily removed from the premises, become a
"nuisance and injurious to health," the Nuisance Authority
should have power, as well as obligation, to collect, remove,
and dispose of such refuse, and should receive reasonable
compensation for so doing.
"In the City of London the Nuisance Authority (Commissioners
of Sewers) do, as a matter of fact, collect trade
refuse—animal and vegetable—receiving payment; and the
Committee are informed by the Medical Officer of Health that
the Commissioners have under consideration a scheme for its
profitable utilization—a scheme which is the more likely to
succeed as the Commissioners will have to deal with large and
regular supplies. It is open to question whether the Nuisance
Authority in a district not having public markets could
profitably utilize limited quantities of animal refuse directly ;
but posbibly a scheme might be arranged for this purpose
through the agency of establishments where "offensive trades "
are carried on under the provisions of the Slaughter-houses
(Metropolis) Act, 1874.
"In any case the refuse should be collected daily in the early
morning hours, and conveyed in properly constructed covered
receptacles, or in vehicles expressly adapted for the prevention
of effluvium nuisance. Failing an arrangement for utilization,