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139
REFUSE MATTER.
The prevention of nuisance from accumulations of offensive
substances, coming under the general description REFUSE,
is a matter of no little difficulty. It is one, moreover, which,
as I had often stated in these reports, could not be settled
satisfactorily without the intervention of the Legislature.
Such intervention has now taken place, by provisions in the
Public Health Act enabling the County Council and the
Sanitary Authority to make bye-laws for the prevention of
nuisances; but whether the powers conferred are adequate remains
to be proved, no bye-laws dealing with the matter
having at present been confirmed by the Local Government
Board. This subject, in relation to certain important parts of
it, was very fully dealt with in my Annual Report for 1887 (at
pages 153 and 176), in connection with a Report by the Law
and Parliamentary Committee, and in my observations on a
communication received by your Vestry, November, 1887,
from the Metropolitan Board of Works, under the heading
"Conveyance of Offensive Substances through Streets." A
copy of this Report was sent to every member of the London
County Council, which, as I observed in my Report for 1890,
"is the proper and only body able to deal effectively with the
matter, viz., by procuring legislative power enabling them to
frame sanitary bye-laws." Bye-laws in relation to the storage
and removal of dust and ashes have been framed. Ere long
we shall know whether they will be sufficient for the purpose.
HOUSE REFUSE.
The collection of ashes and miscellaneous refuse from
22,000 inhabited houses, spread over an area of some 2,200
acres, and to the extent of 45,228 loads in 1892, is no light
task. That it is, on the whole, satisfactorily performed, may
be inferred from the relative fewness of complaints, in comparison
with the number received when the work was in the
hands of contractors. Relatively few as the complaints now
are, a not inconsiderable proportion of them results from the