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The collection of such refuse should be made in the early morning, and
its removal effected in specially constructed vehicles ; if practicable the
refuse should be utilised ; 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 maybe 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 u dustbins" 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 21,000 houses, spread over an area of 2,200 acres,
and to the extent of 38,000 loads in a single year, is no light
task. That it is on the whole satisfactorily performed, may be
inferred from the fewness of complaints, which, it may be said,
were legion when the work was in the hands of contractors.
Comparatively few as the complaints now are, a not inconsiderable
proportion of them results from the refusal of domestic servants
to allow the refuse to be removed when the periodical call is made.
Nuisance, in the sanitary sense, need not arise, even from a full
dustbin ; when it occurs, it is due to improper use of the receptacle,
by the deposit therein of animal and vegetable matters, of
which it may be said that the former has an appreciable value,
and should be utilised, while the latter admits of being burned,
after drying, on the kitchen fire. A notification to this effect was
left at every house in the Parish in 1873, and again in 1883.
The work of dust collection has been systematised by division
of the parish into districts, and provision has been made for
inspection of dustbins and oversight of the "dusting gangs." A