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7
Malden Green.—A striking advance has been made by the
Open Spaces Committee in securing by Act of Parliament in 1908
a scheme for regulating and controlling Maiden Green as a place
for exercise and recreation, and to be for all time maintained by
the Council as a Common under the Metropolitan Commons Acts,
1866 to 1898. Byelaws are being framed, and will be in operation
within a short period. Old Maiden can look upon the use of the
greens as a permanent means of securing recreation, and the work
of the Committee has been eminently successful.
SANITARY POWERS OBTAINED BY THE COUNCIL.
The Council has secured by its adoption of the Public Health
Acts Amendment Act, 1907, one of the most powerful levers to
operate sanitary improvements in the district. It cannot be denied
that the Council are well to the front in securing reforms, but the
powers conferred by the Local Government Board and Secretary of
State will considerably assist the Public Health Officers. The
Council are well in advance of many districts, and it is anticipated
that good work will follow.
EXCREMENT DISPOSAL.
The system in vogue is the wet or water carriage method of
removing sewage from the dwelling. In the old houses the soil,
pipe, and drain leading to the junction with the sewer were six
inches in diameter ; this was a serious defect, as the flush tank did
not contain enough water to flush more than half the diameter of
the pipe, allowing the unflushed portion to get foul and unhealthy.
Every opportunity is taken to reconstruct their old drainage system.
A few of these drains are still in existence; the majority have been
relaid with four-inch pipes. All known cesspools have been
abolished, and the whole of the district is sewered.
SCAVENGING AND CLEANSING.
Collection and disposal of all refuse is now carried out by the
Health Department, viz., the collection, removal, and destruction
of house and trade refuse. The effective disposal of dry refuse,
paper, rags, and other more or less combustible material constitutes
one of the greatest difficulties which every sanitary authority has to
face. Some 2,671 loads are collected yearly. Much of this might
be obviated and expense to the ratepayers reduced if individual
householders would burn in their own grates such material as
paper, rags, potato peelings, cabbage leaves, and similar substances;
few do so, with the result that the average dustbin contains
an objectionable amount of readily decomposing material.