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11
For the purpose of facilitating the removal of dust the parish has been divided
into six divisions, each division being cleared on a fixed day of the week so that the
dust from every house in the parish is removed at least once a week, and oftener
in special cases.
The success attending the execution of the new scheme is well shown by the
greatly reduced number of complaints. From Michaelmas, 1891, to Lady-day,
1892, the number of complaints in the Eastern division (the one worked by the
Committee) was 30, there being no second complaints, whereas in the Western
division (worked by a contractor) there were 1,222 complaints during the same
period, and during the last four years the average number of complaints in the
Eastern division has been 2,208 per annum under the contract system. The Yestry
Contractor for the Western division was fined £20 by the Vestry in respect of some
of the above complaints and was charged £22 12s. 7d. for work done on his behalf.
The greatly improved state of the streets swept by the Committee's men speaks
for itself; moreover, the nuisance caused by the Vestry's Contractors storing large
accumulations of refuse on their wharves in the parish, with which the Sanitary
Committee of the Vestry had to interfere twice in the last year, has been done away
with by the system of immediate disposal, and in a recent case the Contractors in the
adjoining parish of Hackney have been compelled by a Police Magistrate to adopt a
similar system on it being proved that the Shoreditch Yestry were working it with
success.
The objectionable practice of dustmen exacting 'tips' from ratepayers has been
to a large extent put down, as any employee of the Yestry found demanding any
fees is subject to instant dismissal. The men are paid fair wages and they are not
left as they were under the contract system to supplement very low wages by
exactions from ratepayers. An important benefit will be derived from the scheme
indirectly by the cessation of the practice of sweeping slop down the gullies which,
under the old system led to frequent stoppages of the sewers, entailing much inconvenience
and expense.
There is no doubt that the cost of the new system of dusting and scavenging
will be a good deal greater than under the old contract system, but this must be the
case where work which has been m a large measure neglected is carried out in a
thoroughly efficient manner. Moreover, by sec. 29 of the Public Health Act, 1891,
the additional labour and expense of cleansing all the public footways in the parish
is thrown upon the Vestry, and this work must add considerably to the cost of dusting
and scavenging the parish, especially in the case of snowfalls. The drastic provisions of
this Act which came into operation on the 1st January, 1892, require a very much
higher standard of efficiency, than heretofore, in this work which has such an important
bearing on the sanitary welfare of the parish, and in view of the heavy penalties
inflicted by the Act on Local Authorities for neglecting dusting and scavenging