View report page

147
call is now made at every house once a week, and further improvement
is scarcely possible until the objectionable practice of refuse
harbourage shall have given place to the only rational system of
daily collection from moveable receptacles deposited in the early
morning on the footway, ready for the cart. Delay in removal
was formerly due, not unfrequently, to the inconvenient position
of the dustbin ; as, for instance, in an area, to which there was no
access save by ladders over the railings. In some instances where
there were steps householders have been known to refuse to allow
the gate to be unlocked, thus wilfully endangering the safety
of the unfortunate dustmen, more than one of whom have been
impaled on the spikes of area railings. Such an accident cannot
happen again, your Vestry having issued instructions, upon the
recommendation of the Wharves and Plant Committee, forbidding
the use of ladders, and requiring that access be given to the dustbin
through the house when necessary.
A constantly increasing difficulty is experienced in finding
convenient, i.e., accessible, "shoots" for house refuse; to the
deposit of which within their boundaries the Sanitary Authorities
of contiguous districts naturally object. The refuse, moreover,
has little value now that building operations are being
prosecuted upon so limited a scale in, or within easy distance of,
the Parish, and other districts being able to supply the brickmakers'
wants. Your Vestry have appointed a Committee, now
sitting, to consider as to the practicability of conveying the refuse
to the country, for agricultural purposes, and await with interest
the result of the Committee's enquiry.
STABLE REFUSE.
I have frequently had occasion to draw attention to nuisances
arising from the non-removal of stable refuse. "Notice" has
been given "for the periodical removal of manure and other refuse
matter," under the provisions of Section 53 of the Sanitary Act,
1866, which prescribes a penalty of twenty shillings a day for
default; and yet one of the most frequent causes of complaint by