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The collection of such refuse should be made in the early morning,
and the removal effected in specially constructed vehicles: if practicable
the refuse should be utilized; otherwise it should be destroyed by fire.
2. House Refuse.—In view of the increasing distance to brickfields, house
refuse will have to be dealt with by fire in specially constructed
apparatus of the "Destructor" type, by which its bulk may be reduced
some 75 per cent., the resulting product moreover, being at once
innocuous, and useful for road making and other purposes : the refuse
should be collected daily, and "dust-bins" abolished.
3. Stable and Cowshed Refuse.—The Nuisance Authority should have power
to collect the refuse at the reasonable cost of the owner: cowshed
refuse daily, in vehicles designed to prevent slopping and effluvium
nuisance: stable refuse periodically, the refuse, meanwhile, to be
stored in suitable receptacles—paved, drained, and enclosed within
iron racks, above ground.
4. Conclusion.—Legislation is necessary to give effect to the above recommendations,
and to compel railway and canal companies to carry refuse
from towns at a reasonable, while remunerative, rate.
HOUSE REFUSE.
The collection of ashes, and miscellaneous refuse, from
upwards of 20,000 houses, over an area of 2,200 acres, and
to the extent of 34,000 loads in a single year, is no light task,
and complaints of neglect by the dustmen were habitual when
the work was carried out under the contract system. So
frequent, indeed, did complaints become at last, that your
Vestry, desirous of satisfying the legitimate requirements of
the parishioners, determined, in 1877, to abolish the contract
system altogether, and to undertake dust-collection 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 applications,
even, for the removal of ashes, are now comparatively
few. Sometimes, moreover, when your Vestry, or the
dustmen have been censured for supposed neglect, it has
turned out on enquiry that domestic servants were to
blame; such excuses as that the hour of the dustman's call
was "inconvenient"; or that "the steps had just been cleaned";
being deemed sufficient for the perpetuation of a nuisance.