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REPORT.
To the Board of Works for Hackney District.
Gentlemen,
Although in my Weekly Minutes I have reported to you the
result of your proceedings against Mr. Winn for keeping a dust-yard
in your District, yet as these Minutes will not be published, and the
decision is one of public importance, I am induced again to bring it to
your notice.
The proceedings were based on the Nuisance Removal Act; the offences
we charged him with were as follows:—first, that house refuse was
brought to the wharf containing vegetable matter, and offal in a decomposing
state. Secondly, that in the process of sifting, the dust, and the fine
particles of vegetable matter were dispersed by the wind over the adjacent
neighbourhood, so as to prove injurious to those who inhaled them. Thirdly,
that the breeze (sifted ashes) contained vegetable matter in a more or less
advanced state of decomposition, which, when piled into a heap and wetted
by the rain, fermented still more, and evolved effluvia injurious to health.
Further, that the rain dissolved the soluble portions of the vegetable
matter, and thus impregnated the cinders themselves. The fermentative
action was shown, amongst other signs, by the escape of gases and a considerable
quantity of watery vapour. We also proved that large accumulations
of vegetable refuse, of breeze, dust, and hardcore were allowed to
remain on the premises for a longer period than was required for conducting
the business.
The Magistrate, R. P. Tyrwhitt, Esq., in his judgment stated that he considered
all trades which caused the evolution of noxious effluvia should
be removed from the Metropolis ; that he was of opinion we had proved the
defendant's trade to be noxious and injurious to the health of the neighbourhood
; and also, that as the sifting of the dust was hurtful he could not
allow him to continue doing so, and therefore ordered the abatement of the
nuisance.