HH62/45/141

Transcription

[Note] 140

Perth District.

1. During the year 1893 there has been a great advance made in sanitary
matters in the Perth District. Not only has a large amount of work been satisfactorily
accomplished, such as the appointment of scavengers in all the large villages, the
formation of the Carse of Gowrie and Almondbank Special Water Supply Districts,
and the works for purifying the sewage of Scone, but the beginnings of several
matters, of the utmost importance to the sanitary well-being of the District, have
been under the consideration of the Local Authority. It is to be hoped that it will
be our pleasant duty to report, in 1891, that these have been satisfactorily carried out;
amongst them may be mentioned the proposed Drainage of Stanley and Bankfoot.
The Sanitary Condition of the entire District has undergone a very marked
improvement, but this is specially observable in the larger villages, in which, during
the latter part of the year, scavengers have been appointed by the District Committee.
These appointments were made in spite of considerable opposition, not only from
the ratepayers of the rural districts, who considered that they would derive no benefit
from the proposed expenditure, but also from the villagers themselves, who did not
approve of the old convenient excuse (that the farmer had not come, as he promised,
to empty the contents of the midden) being taken from them, and a man permanently
appointed, who would, on receiving a hint from the local Inspector, make very short
work of the removal of offensive heaps. Already very satisfactory progress has
been made, and most of the middens considered dangerous to health have been cleared
out, and either entirely abolished or new places substituted for them at a safe distance
from the houses. Where this was found impossible the daily removal of domestic
refuse has been undertaken. The appointment of scavengers was hastened by an
outbreak of diphtheria in Scone, of rather a serious nature, which showed the inhabitants
that the sanitary condition of the village was not in the high perfection they imagined;
and, as the disease spread to the surrounding district, nothing more was said
against the [s]cheme, the country people being convinced that it would be for
their own interest rather to pay the small sum necessary to defray the expense of a
scavenger than to incur the presence of such a deadly malady.
The much-vexed question of the Water Supply for a part of the Carse of
Gowrie has been frequently discussed by the District Committee, who have
now resolved to form a large portion of the Parish of Errol into a Special
Water Supply District which will embrace all the farms destitute of a
supply of pure water. This will prove a great benefit to those included in
the District. The proposed source of the above Water Supply is a stream
flowing down the south side of the Sidlaws, nearly opposite the Special District,
which has a gathering ground almost entirely free from cultivation. The supply of
water is ample, and the quality excellent, while the formation of the glen through which
the stream flows is particularly adapted for constructing a large storage reservoir at small
cost. During the interval which elapsed between the first mention of the proposed
Water Supply for the Carse and the formation of the Special Water District, two
attempts were made, by proprietors concerned, to obtain sufficient water. In one case
the result was a failure, but in the other, an ample supply of water was obtained by

[Note] 141