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47
A circular letter of warning was sent to every fish salesman in Sheerness, by
Sir J. Wrench Towse from the Fishmongers' Hall.
These were measures taken in discharge of the requirement of your Worshipful
Committee, that unauthorised persons should be prevented from taking shellfish from
the Lapwell.
It is of interest that according to the estimate of Professor W. H. Thompson,
Trinity College, Dublin, taken from the recent Board of Trade Report on the food
supply of the United Kingdom, the energy value per annum of shellfish consumed
(including crabs and lobsters) is 19,000 millions of calories, out of a total supply from
food of 49¼ millions of millions of calories, or .000397 of the available energy in the
total food consumed.
This would be the energy supply for 13,471 man values of the total man value
34,916,712 in the population.
SANITARY INSPECTION.
In Table XXVIII. is given the usual Summary and Analysis of the inspection of
vessels and other premises, and in Table XXXII. particulars of works carried out under
the supervision of your officers, the plans of which had been submitted to your
Committee.
In Tables XXIX. and XXX. the number and kind of nuisances are dealt with,
both in vessels and in buildings ashore within the docks. Table XXXIII. deals with
infringements of the Bye-laws relating to the carriage of offensive cargoes.
From these it will be gathered that the total number of visits of inspection during
the year was 29,878, 7,727 of these being to vessels in the river, and the remainder in
the Docks. Of the vessels 10,244 visits were to those from foreign ports, the number
of cases in which cleansing of crews' quarters was necessary, was 1,910.
The total number of nuisances reported and dealt with was 2,886, of which 2,266
were in vessels, and 619 on other premises.
The remaining one was in the river, and arose from the carcase of a bottle-nosed
whale about 18 feet in length, which had stranded on the foreshore of the lower river
at Mucking.
The disposal of these large and putrid carcases, on occasions, is very expensive, but
in this case, being near open water, the carcase was towed out and sent adrift early on
the ebb-tide and was carried out to sea.
The offences against the Bye-laws relating to offensive cargoes consisted almost
entirely in the inadequate covering and overloading of barges with house and other
refuse from the metropolis. As excuses, the difficulties at the present time in (a)
replacing lost and worn coverings, (6) controlling the casual labour employed, and
(c) the desirability of loading above the limit in order to deliver a full freight after
allowing for "settling," have all been pleaded and are not new. All things considered,
however, it was decided not to recommend summary proceedings in any case. The
total number of offences reported—ten during the year—does not point to any serious
disregard of the Bye-laws.