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113
and should be utilized, while the latter admits of being burned on
the kitchen fire. A notification to this effect was left at every
house in the parish in 1873, and subsequently repeated, not, I fear,
with any conspicuously good result.
A strong effort has been made to systematise the work of dust
collection by dividing the parish into districts, and providing for the
inspection of dust-bins, and for supervision of the "dusting-gangs."
The one thing needful for success is a systematic call at every
house once a week. Hitherto the rule, or at any rate the order,
has been, that a dust cart should go through each street, once a
week, on a given day, and that a call should be made at each house
once a fortnight. If the plan of a weekly call could be organised,
it should be understood that if, through default of domestic servants,
or any other cause beyond the control of your Vestry, the
receptacle is not emptied on the appointed day, no further attendance
could be given in the same week.
STABLE REFUSE.
For several years I have felt it my duty to draw your Vestry's
attention to the subject of the removal, or rather the non-removal
of stable refuse. Regulations have been framed and published
enjoining "periodical removal of manure, etc.," by the owners,
under the provisions of The Sanitary Act, 1866, which prescribes
a penalty of twenty shillings a day for default. But still the most
frequent cause of complaint by parishioners, and the most frequent
of recurring nuisances, arises from the neglect of this obligation.
Proceedings have been taken occasionally to enforce the regulations,
but not with uniform success, the offenders having usually
been able to satisfy the Magistrates that the duty required of them
was beyond their power to perform. During the past year, however,
the Justices fined two persons two pounds each for failure to
remove accumulations after notice, and in breach of the regulations.
The difficulty not seldom originates with the coachman who, will
not give the refuse away, while the farmer or his carter will not
pay for it. At certain seasons, e.g., hay-making time and harvest,
there is a real difficulty in getting the receptacles cleansed, farmers
being too busy to send their carts into town, or, if they do, to allow
them to stay to collect the refuse. The refuse nevertheless has