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148
and to "orders" for "the purpose of removing the ground of
complaint," viz., under Section 18. The president informed me
that the Bill was in the charge of Mr. Hibbert, and that he
would take care my representations were laid before that
gentleman. Should it become necessary to withdraw the Bill,
it is to be hoped a more comprehensive measure may be introduced
next Session.*]
HOUSE REFUSE.
The collection of ashes, and miscellaneous refuse, from
upwards of 20,000 houses, within an area of more than 2,000
acres, and to the extent of 30,000 loads in a single year, is no
light task, and complaints of neglect on the part of the dustmen
were habitual when the work was carried out under the
contract system. So frequent, indeed, did complaints become
at last, that your Yestry, desirous of satisfying the legitimate
requirements of the parishioners, determined, in 1877, to
abolish the contract system altogether, and to undertake dustcollection
with an ample staff and plant. The results have
justified the change: the work has ever since been done in an
increasingly satisfactory manner; complaints are rare, and
even applications for removal of ashes are comparatively
few. Sometimes, moreover, when your Yestry, or the dustmen,
have been censured for alleged neglect, it has turned out on
enquiry that domestic servants were to blame: the hour of
the dustman's call was "inconvenient;" "the steps had just been
cleaned;" such excuses, or others equally valid from a
servant's point of view, being deemed sufficient for the perpetuation
of a nuisance. And nuisance, it may be averred,
arises almost solely from the improper use of the receptacle by
the deposit therein of animal and vegetable refuse; of which
it may be said that the former has an appreciable value, 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 is now in course of being repeated.
* The Bill was passed on the last working day of the Session, viz., August 23.