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114
value, if it could only be got on to the land without undue
expenditure: the quantity made in this large parish with its 150
mews is very great, and of an aggregate value, probably, more
than sufficient to pay for the cost of collection and removal from
London. It is a question whether your Vestry should not
undertake such collection and removal, as the law allows, "with the
sanction of the owner," a sanction which would be cheerfully given
in many instances, and which, probably, it would not be difficult
to obtain in most cases, if it were understood that the "Regulations "
would be enforced ?
The regulations require that the manure should be removed
"every alternate day." Twice a week in summer, and once a
week in winter, would probably suffice for all practical requirements,
in ordinary cases, if the manure were stored in properly constructed
receptacles above ground.
Owing to inclement weather in the early part of the year,—snow
having fallen in large quantities, and remained long on the ground,
the removal of manure was suspended for a lengthened term, with
the usual result of a crop of complaints from residents in the
vicinity of mews. The nuisance was all the greater as the
manure had been spread over the mews to enable coachmen and
others to exercise their horses, the effect being that the straw got
crushed and sodden, and thus was rendered more offensive than
usual. When collected together after the thaw, much of the filthy
stuff was piled up against empty stables, there being no room for
it in the receptacles, and thereby the responsibility for its removal
was so shifted, that in many instances your Vestry had to send carts
and take it away. Acting on my suggestion, your Vestry circulated
a special hand-bill calling upon the proprietors of stables to remove
the accumulations without delay, and intimating that proceedings
for the recovery of penalties under the regulations, would be taken
in case of default. The ordinary machinery by means of marketgarden
carts utterly broke down in the emergency, and it was
many weeks before the mews were restored to their ordinary
condition in respect of refuse; and this, as I have said, is by no
means satisfactory. A very large portion of the time of the
Sanitary Inspectors is taken up in the endeavour to keep the
mews clean, time which in different circumstances would be more
profitably occupied in other directions.