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(46)
the Public Health Act, and Sec. 9 of the Housing of
the Working Classes Act, on the offenders, and in ten
instances orders to abate were obtained. This has had
a salutary effect, as but very little persuasion is now
necessary to get their assent to vacate the neighbourhood.
BALLAST BURNING.
A great number of complaints have been received
during the year from the occupiers of houses abutting
on the various building estates of the district, from
the offensive smell and smoke generated from the
burning of clay. The nuisance is of constant recurrence
from the large amount of land being
developed for building, and is one which is most
difficult to deal with, as there are no regulations
stipulating the distance from inhabited houses that a
fire may be lighted. It appears necessary that the
Sanitary Authority should have the power to locate
the position of the fires, as by being in close
proximity to the adjoining houses they cause great
annoyance and inconvenience to the occupants. By
the time the matter has been reported to the Council
and proceedings taken the fire has, in most instances,
burnt entirely out. In one very bad instance the fire
had been burning for three weeks within 40ft. of the
adjoining inhabitants' bed-room windows, and after
taking proceedings against the offender, the
Magistrate ordered the nuisance to be abated within
14 days.