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29
large houses, twice a week. Some such plan as this has been
recently, I learn, instituted in New York with success.
The Surveyor was instructed, in May last, to serve notices on
the occupiers of certain premises abutting on passages at the rear
of certain streets, requiring the same to be cleansed by them. In
several instances of non-compliance, the passages were cleansed
by the scavengers, and the cost apportioned between the defaulters.
This seems on the whole the best course to pursue, but with the
return of the suburban gardening season there will probably be a
return of the causes of offence.
The Bye-Law alluded to in my last report as having been
framed by the Council with a view to preventing the construction
of flats and double tenements with inordinate back additions, etc.,
has received formal confirmation from the Local Government
Board. The principle is one which has been upheld in these
reports from the first, and the bye-law which has been designed to
give effect to it is, I think, a most admirable one, and likely to be
widely adopted elsewhere.
The question of bye-laws controlling the fried fish trade has
already been referred to. No other trade that can fairly be called
offensive is now carried on in the district.
A sub-committee is at present sitting and considering the
revision of our building bye-laws. I have communicated to the
Surveyor my notion of several ways in which, from a sanitary
point of view, these bye-laws might usefully be improved, and no
doubt attention will be given to the various questions I would raise.
As stated in my last report, the Council is now in possession
of an excellent ambulance, provided for public use in cases of
accident or emergency, by Dr. Mackintosh and some friends. But
I am not sure that the conditions under which it is available are