TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 225 



Under the superintendence of this committee. At the same time the Artisans' 

 Dwellings Act came into operation, and the provisions of this Act, with powers 

 possessed by local Acts, hare furnished the committee with the necessary autho- 

 rity for altering the old ash-pit and enforcing the construction of new ones ac- 

 cording to the plans which have been adopted. In the construction of ash-pits the 

 object of the committee was to prevent as far as possible the decomposition of 

 the excreta, and consequent generation of gases passing oft" into the surrounding 

 atmosphere ; and as decomposition is accelerated by moisture, they determined 

 that all ash-pits should be made dry, excluding the rainfall by covering them over, 

 and the dramage from the yard by requii-ing the floor and walls to be made 

 water-tight ; they required also that the ashes from the pit shoidd be placed daily 

 in the ash-pit for the purpose of condensing, as far as possible, the ammoniacal 

 and other gases, and preventing organic matter impregnating the air in the im- 

 mediate vicinity. In addition to these arrangements it was foreseen that in summer 

 time, when decomposition is most vigorous and the supply of neutralizing ashes 

 most scanty, a closed ash-pit might become a greater nuisance than an open one; 

 and a ventilating-shaft or chimney was determined upon, to be carried from 

 the top of the ash-pit up to the side of, and a little above, the eaves of the 

 house for the purpose of canying oft" all the gases and light vapours and allow- 

 ing them to mix with the surrounding atmosphere at an elevation which would 

 not injuriously aftect the inmates of the dwelling. 



In attempting these improvements the committee met with considerable im- 

 pediments — the covered ash-pit and flue had a hard straggle for existence ; the 

 council was sceptical, especially on the efficacy of the flue. It was to little pur- 

 pose to assure the members that as the emanations from the ash-pit would, from 

 the warm ashes of the kitchen and the faical matter, be of a higher tempera- 

 ture than the sm-rounding air, they must necessarily ascend and pass oft" at the 

 highest point of egress, and, if there was no opening but the flue, then up the flue. 

 The replj' was, they might not do so. A flue had been connected with a covered 

 ash-pit for a considerable time, and was found to be most effective ; and it was 

 urged that all other flues under similar circumstances would also be efficient, just 

 as surely as heated air ascending one chimney would ascend all chimneys. The 

 evidence was not deemed sufficient. The committee was authorized and "required 

 to have a number erected, and meanwhile the enforcement of the regulation was 

 suspended. "When at length the council, satisfied by the evidence adduced, autho- 

 rized the committee to proceed, another obstacle presented itself The property 

 owners (that is, the owners of cottage property), having chiefly formed themselves 

 into an association, rose in arms against the change ; they declared that the cost of 

 making the alteration would be £8 to £10, and that the rents must be advanced 1.?, 

 per week to carry out this new plan of the committee. They declared that, in the 

 opinion of practical and scientific men, the ventilating-flue would be perfectly use- 

 less, that the noxious gases would not escape through the flue, but would overflow 

 into the back yard, producing greater evils than any it was intended to remedy ; 

 and in a report of the executive committee of the "Associated Property Owners' 

 Association," issued in December last, it is declared that, after nearly twelve months' 

 experience and from consultations with gentlemen well able to form an opinion, 

 they are more than ever convinced of its uselessness ; and they promise at an early 

 date to have the opinion of scientific men put in an official form iu the nature of a 

 report, which would be submitted to the health committee. "What the opinion of 

 these scientific men, upon which the property owners rest their case, may be can- 

 not be ascertained, as no report has ever been presented ; but it is worthj^ of re - 

 mark, as illustrating the complexity of our legal procedure, that with all the powers 

 possessed by the corporation in its many local Acts, and the stringent clauses of the 

 Artisans' Dwellings Act, some of these property owners have succeeded iu delay- 

 ing the reconstruction of privies and ash-pits in connexion with dwellings de- 

 clared by the officer of health to be unfit for human habitation for a period of 

 nearly twelve months. Notwithstanding these obstructions, the committee has 

 continued its operations. Every new house erected in the city is required to pro- 

 vide a water-tight covered ash-pit with ventilating-flue ; and, taking the worst of 

 the old ones, just about 270 have been recDustructed on the new plan, or as near 



1870. 15 



•7 



