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objectionable manner. The matter is eminently deserving of the
attention of the Council, but it is doubtful, as elsewhere stated
(page 105), whether they have power to deal with it in the
existing state of the law, viz., by framing sanitary bye-laws.
STABLE REFUSE.
In several of my annual reports mention has been made of
the frequency of complaints in regard to accumulations of stable
manure, "the most common of recurring nuisances" with which
the Sanitary Inspectors have to deal. Your Vestry many years
ago exercised the powers conferred by section 53 of the Sanitary
Act, 1866, by giving public notice for "the periodical removal
of manure or other refuse matter from mews, stables," etc.; the
regulations requiring such removal to be effected on "alternate
days the penalty for default being "twenty shillings per day for
every day during which such manure or other refuse matter shall
be permitted to accumulate." Proceedings have been taken
occasionally for the recovery of penalties, but not with very
satisfactory results. The non-removal is sometimes the fault of
the coachman, who will not give the refuse away, and the farmers
being now, as a rule, unwilling to pay for it. At certain seasons
—e.g., haymaking and harvest-time—there is no doubt a difficulty
in getting the receptacles cleared, farmers being too busy
to collect the refuse. Formerly, when the Parish consisted largely
of market gardens, the cultivators of the soil were glad enough to get
the manure by satisfying the demands of the coachmen and others.
Now that it has to be hauled miles to the suburban farms and
gardens, the stable-owners, moreover, being at the mercy of the
waggoners, the case is far otherwise, and not unfrequently
payment has to be made to ensure removal.
The nuisance caused by accumulation varies in degree
according to the character of the receptacle in which the manure
is stored. When this is a well-paved and drained enclosure, on
the surface of the mews, consisting of a low curb carrying a