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because a loft over it was used as a workshop, and two applications
for new sheds were successfully objected to because they
were within twenty feet of inhabited dwelling-houses. As many
as twenty-one meetings of the View Committee were held, chiefly
in connection with the licenses to cowsheds, and twenty-nine
meetings of the Sanitary Committee have also been held, making
fifty-nine Committee meetings, all of which I attended.
The removal of the dust has been satisfactorily carried out
by the new contractors; Mr. Jackson having removed 10,207
loads from the north-western district, and Mr. Stevens 9,543
from the south-eastern, making a total of 19,750 loads removed
against 18,129 in 1878, and 18,623 in 1877. The contract price
for the removal is 2s. per load in the south-eastern, and 1s. 11d.
per load in the north-western, the dust being the property of the
contractor, one of our men in each sub-division of the district,
assisting in the removal from the houses, and also under the
orders of the dust inspector directing the drivers of the carts
where to go. The total cost, including our own men's wages
and the dust inspector's salary, was £2,593 13s 6d., being a
reduction of £150 on the sum paid in 1878. The number of
dust complaints and requests to remove dust was 2,296, of which
the greatest part were merely requests to have the dust removed
on a certain day. This is a small number compared with the
returns in some other parishes, and shows that the present system
of having the house refuse removed at a fixed price per load by
my directions, and under the immediate supervision of the dust
inspector, answers very well.
The inspection of the smaller houses in the district which are
to a considerable extent occupied by two or more families was
carried out as usual. There were 6,025 houses inspected, containing
26,731 rooms, 9,077 families, and 39,509 persons; so
that there Were about 3 families to every 2 houses, and 6.57 persons
in each house. I consider that one of the reasons for the
slight increase in the death-rate, as compared with the increased
density of population, is owing to the great number of small