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205
as the complaints now are, a not inconsiderable proportion of them
results from the neglect of domestic servants to allow the refuse to
be removed when the periodical call of the dust-man is made.
Nuisance, in the sanitary sense, need not arise even from a full
dust-bin: when it does occur 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 utilized, whilst 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 systematized by division
of the parish into districts, and provision has been made for
inspection of dust-bins and oversight of the "dusting gangs," the
entire arrangements being under the supervision of the Surveyor.
A call is made at every house once a week, and further improvement
is scarcely possible until the objectionable practice of refuseharbourage
shall have given place to the more rational system of
daily, or, at any rate, frequent collection from moveable receptacles,
to be provided either by the Sanitary Authority or by the householder.
Desirous of dealing with this nuisance in an effective way,
your Yestry, in November, 1887, requested the (late) Metropolitan
Board of Works to include in any suitable Bill thereafter promoted
by them in Parliament, clauses to confer power enabling Sanitary
Authorities to abolish dust-bins, and to enforce provision, in lieu
thereof, of approved moveable receptacles, in order that a more
frequent and accelerated collection of the refuse might be made.
Nothing came of your Vestry's action, the Board having adopted
the view of their Special Purposes and Sanitary Committee, to the
effect that it was "not desirable to promote the suggested legislation."
The County Council think otherwise: the matter is dealt
with in the Public Health (London) Bill, and much of the required
power will be conferred when the Act comes into force in 1892.