HH62/2/RENFRE/65

Transcription

[Page] 64

Nowadays privy-ashpits in towns are being condemned and extir
pated. As a sanitary contrivance, especially in connection with tene-
ment and poorer-class properties, they are an abomination. Taking
them on the average over the county, they are constructed on the
worst possible principles. They are made as large as possible, in
order that they may go as long as possible without scavenging. They
are so constructed that the excreta and ashes do not mix.The ash-
pits are uncovered - rain and sunshine alike beat into them - so that
the two great agencies favourable to putrefaction, moisture and heat,
are present. The tenants make things as bad as possible by throwing
all their slops into them, so that they are often 'swimming' with
foul putrid sewage. The privy-ashpits are bad when they are full;
they are still worse when they are being emptied. Then, three or
four cart-loads of evil-smelling stuff have to be shovelled out into
wheelbarrows; these have usually to be wheeled through the 'close'
or common passage, and their contents deposited on the street, in
front of the house, there to accumulate until the (nowadays) reluctant
farmer is ready to cart them away. The farmers, naturally, will only
remove the stuff when it suits their convenience, which may be once
in six months or once in twelve. The smell which pervades the street
when the ash-pits are being cleansed vies with the stinks of Cologne.
Things could not well be worse, and so long as matters remain as
they are we cannot wonder if our county villages, with all their natu-
rally advantages, are in so many respects less healthy than the towns.
When, however, we come to discuss the question of remedy, the full
difficulty of the case presents itself. What ought to be is easily de-
scribed. The privy-ashpit should be abolished. In its place should
appear something of the type known as the 'privy-receptacle.' The
first principle of this contrivance is that it shall not contain more
than a week's accumulation of refuse. It follows from this, practi-
cally, that the receptacle shall be of no greater capacity than the
space underneath the seat. Such an arrangement secures (1) that
neither rain nor sun shall beat upon the contents; (2) that the ashes
(generally shot in from the side) shall mingle with, and deodorise,
the excreta; (3) that no undue accumulation of filth shall occur;
and (4) that the excreta, etc., shall be removed in a comparatively
fresh condition. All this is possible, and is carried out with ease, in
a town. But so long as there is no public system of scavenging in
connection with our villages, so long as we are dependent upon the
half-yearly visits of the farmer's carts, such an arrangement is im-

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practicable. It has been held that a Local Authority may employ a
scavenger to cleanse the streets of a village, but beyond that the
Local Authority has at present no power to go, and the mere scav-
enging of the front streets, while those seething abominations exist in
the rear, is a mere whiting of the outside of the sepulchre. The
Society of Medical Officers of Health for Scotland has memorialized
the Secretary for Scotland and the Lord Advocate, with a view to
legal powers being granted for the creation of Special Scavenging
Districts, upon the lines of the existing Special Drainage and Special
Water-Supply Districts. I am certain that proprietors and tenants
generally would be delighted to pay the small rate involved - which
would often be less than the cost of the existing (want of) system -
to be saved the annoyance and worry by running from one farmer to
another, invoking, at the busy seasons, in vain, his assistance in the
matter. But, in the meantime, county sanitary officials are in a
dilemma. These foul privy ashpits exist; it is no use asking proprie-
tors to convert them into privy-receptacles - the most efficient form
of which, by the way, would have a galvanized-iron box, provided
with handles, under the seat; this would be lifted out by the scav-
engers, and tilted into the cart, without any shovel-work being re-
quired, and without any fouling of the street. And yet the greatest
nuisances in the villages are these privy-middens; they cannot, with-
out grave dereliction of duty, be ignored. But any continuance of
the system, even upon much improved lines, will involve partial re-
construction when an improved method of scavenging is introduced.
When, however, is this likely to come to pass? With the existing
and prospective stagnation of business in the Legislature, one cannot
regard the matter with hopefulness. The only interim solution of
the difficulty which the Lord Advocate, on being interviewed on the
subject, could suggest, was the recurrent wholesale prosecution of
proprietors for undue accumulations of refuse! The poor people who
are, for the most part, the sufferers, have become habituated and
case-hardened to the evil; and it does not lie at the door of the better
off classes. Thus there is no volume of public opinion, such as is re-
quired nowadays, to thrust this and like matters upon the attention
of our legislators; I am afraid that 'Privy-middens!' would not
prove a popular electioneering cry. We are, therefore, in a quandary;
whether we do anything or whether we do nothing, we are alike
open to criticism. The policy which I at present pursue is to instruct
the sanitary inspectors to deal only with very bad, dilapidated privy-