Dirty Dustbins and Sloppy Streets / A Practical Treatise on the Scavenging and Cleansing of Cities and Towns - H. Percy Boulnois

The following table, however, gives the actual cost of collecting house refuse and cleansing and watering streets in fourteen large English towns:—


Name of Town.	Annual cost of collecting house refuse and cleansing and watering streets and courts.	This amounts to the following:—
Name of Town.		Per 1,000 of population.	Per mile of streets.

	£	£	£
Bedford	900	45.0	45.9
Bristol	13,005	63.1	108.3
Cambridge	2,350	67.1	83.9
Cardiff	5,545	65.2	95.6
Carlisle	2,261	64.6	113.0
Exeter	2,100	52.5	60.0
Gloucester	1,478	36.9	49.3
Liverpool	82,284	151.2	316.2
Northampton	2,820	51.3	104.4
Oxford	2,750	63.9	85.9
Portsmouth	5,276	39.0	101.4
Southampton	1,999	33.3	45.4
Southport	4,077	119.9	97.0
Swansea	4,200	60.0	76.3

These figures are taken from a return prepared by Mr. Williams, C.E., Engineer to the Borough of Cardiff.

I have frequently referred to some returns which I have obtained on the subject of the collection of house refuse and cleansing of streets, and it may be interesting and of use to others who wish to obtain information on these subjects if before closing this book I give a list of the questions that were asked. They were as follows:—

(1.)	Name of city or town.
(2.)	Number of inhabitants.
(3.)	Area of district scavenged.
(4.)	Is the house refuse collected by the Urban Authority.
(5.)	Or by a contractor.
(6.)	How often is the house refuse removed.
(7.)	Do the scavengers make a house to house call.
(8.)	Or do they give notice of their approach by ringing a bell or otherwise, and require the householder to bring out the refuse to the cart.
(9.)	Do the scavengers remove garden or trade refuse, and, if so, under what conditions.
(10.)	Are the house dustbins, as a rule, fixed or movable.
(11.)	Have you any public dustbins, and, if so, are they merely isolated instances, or have you a regular system.
(12.)	Number of depôts for the refuse collected, and the distance they are from the town.
(13.)	How is the refuse disposed of.
(14.)	Approximate mileage of streets cleansed.
(15.)	Are all the streets swept daily, or only the principal ones.
(16.)	Have you any provision for sweeping streets oftener than once a day, or for the frequent removal of horse dung, &c.
(17.)	Are private courts and alleys swept and cleansed by the Urban Authority, and, if so, how frequently.
(18.)	What number of men, horses, and carts respectively, do you employ.
(19.)	Net cost of your system after giving credit for any money realised by sale of refuse.

In concluding this little book on "Dirty Dustbins and Sloppy Streets," I hope that what has been said may be of some use to my readers, and that they will themselves supply any omissions that they have found, and kindly correct all the errors, which are only too ready to creep into a work of this description.

FINIS.