CHAPTER II.

GENERAL SANITATION.

1. Introductory.-Sanitary administration should be directed towards the maintenance of an adequate supply of wholesome water for the use of all inhabitants; the disposal of all refuse, soil and waste matters; and the avoidance or remedy of all conditions likely to prove a nuisance or to be injurious or dangerous to health. Generally speaking, local authorities have continued to give these matters careful attention. Cases do occasionally come to the Board's notice where local authorities have failed to secure or maintain satisfactory conditions, but frequently this is due to financial or other difficulties. The attainment of satisfactory conditions in towns and populous centres, where general schemes of water supply, drainage and public cleansing may be in operation, constitutes a different problem from that which confronts local authorities in scattered rural areas; and it is frequently in such rural areas, or in small burghs, that the problems, especially as affecting water supply, present most difficulty.

2. Water Supply in Rural Areas.-The supply of water to small rural houses frequently gives difficulty to local authorities and, in some instances, is a source of grave dissatisfaction to the occupiers of the houses concerned. Section 125 of the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897, as amended by Section 40 of the Housing, Town Planning, &c. (Scotland) Act, 1919, provides that if any occupied house is without a proper supply of wholesome water, the local authority shall require the owner to obtain such supply and to introduce it into the house if it is reasonably practicable so to do, and, if this be not practicable, then to provide for such a supply immediately outside the house or as near thereto as is reasonably practicable, and to do all such works as may be necessary for this purpose. The section further provides that any question that may arise under the section shall be determined summarily by the Sheriff, who shall have regard to all the circumstances of the case. There have been brought to the notice of the Department several cases in which local authorities had failed to take any action on representations made by occupiers of houses, or persons acting on their behalf, to the effect that water had to be carried from wells or springs situated at distances varying from 80 yards to 270 yards. It was suggested that the owners should be required, in terms of the above statutory provisions, to provide a water supply nearer to the houses. In these cases the Department were appealed to with a view to inducing the local authorities to take action.

In view of the provision that all questions under the section

are to be determined summarily by the Sheriff, the Board have no duty or power to say whether it is reasonably practicable, in any particular instance, to bring the water supply nearer to the house. One correspondent asked for a ruling as to what factors were to be taken into consideration in determining what was "reasonably practicable," and particularly whether a local authority were entitled to take into consideration questions of cost. He was informed that the interpretation of the statute was a matter for the Courts, and that the Board were not aware of any Court decision bearing on the questions raised. Their view, however, was that the section seemed to contemplate that the local authority were to be the judges in the first instance of what was reasonably practicable; and that if they, in the consideration of any case, had regard to the question of costs as a factor affecting practicability, it was difficult to see how any one could challenge their view.

The further question arose whether, in the event of a local authority refraining from taking action, machinery was available for having the question of practicability submitted for the determination of the Sheriff. The section envisages primarily the determination of questions as between the local authority and the owner; there is no provision to enable the Board to raise a question for determination by the Sheriff, and it is doubtful whether it would be competent for the occupier to raise such a question.

In view of the palpable intention of the statute that an adequate and wholesome water supply should be readily available for the occupants of every house, it is the clear duty of the local authority to consider every case carefully, and not to determine against practicability except on the fullest formulated evidence in regard to the physical nature of the work that would require to be done, and on a detailed estimate of the cost that would be involved.

3. Water Supply and Drainage Loans.-During the year the Public Works Loan Commissioners were recommended in terms of Section 142 of the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897, to grant to local authorities eleven loans amounting to £24,996 for works in connection with water supply, and nine loans amounting to £22,620 for drainage works. These, however, do not represent the total activities of local authorities in Scotland involving capital expenditure on these services, as many authorities prefer to borrow from lenders other than the Public Works Loan Board, and the authorities of burghs and districts with a valuation over £250,000 must do so, while those with a valuation between £100,000 and £250,000 can obtain loans from the Local Loans Fund only if they have endeavoured, and failed, to borrow the money in the open market.

4. Rivers Pollution Prevention.-The prevention and remedy of the pollution of rivers is a problem that becomes more pressing each year, and as the most extensive cause of pollution is domestic

sewage, this problem is closely associated with that of sewage purification and disposal. Pollution from sources connected with industrial or trade concerns also presents an increasingly difficult problem. The whole question is considered of such importance and urgency that it is dealt with at some length in Chapter III.

5. Public Cleansing.-A feature of the year has been the continued activity of many local authorities in dealing with problems of refuse removal and disposal. In some of the larger cities the local authorities have been compelled by the exigencies of circumstances to institute new methods of disposal, while many smaller local authorities have found the methods hitherto followed to be unsatisfactory and sometimes unnecessarily costly.

In the Report for 1925 reference was made to various methods of refuse disposal. Of the methods there enumerated, that of land reclamation is being increasingly adopted. In suitable circumstances this is not only an economical method of disposal which can, with due care, be carried out without causing offence to those who live near the site, but it greatly increases the economic value of the land so reclaimed. With a view to ensuring that such schemes, where adopted, shall be carried out without causing offence, precautions that should be carefully observed have been communicated to many local authorities. These precautions are also applicable to the dumping of refuse in ordinary coups; and where these have been duly observed, the results have been satisfactory. As these precautions are of wide application, they are printed here:

Suggested Precautions as to Dumping of Refuse.

(a) The deposit should be made in layers.

(b) No layer should exceed five feet in depth unless the circumstances are very exceptional. This is to prevent spontaneous combustion.

(c) Each layer should be covered on all surfaces exposed to the air with twelve inches of soil or other suitable material. A covering of soil assists to preserve the amenity of the site, and in the event of spontaneous combustion would act as a blanket.

(d) The area of exposed refuse left at the conclusion of each day's work to continue operations on the following day should be reduced to a minimum.

(e) Sufficient screens (usually wire-netting ten feet above the top level of the dump) or other suitable apparatus should be provided so as to prevent paper or other light material from being blown by the wind away from the place of deposit and littering adjoining properties.

(f) As far as practicable the deposit of refuse in water should be avoided, but if circumstances arise where it would be advisable to fill up, say, stagnant pools, precautions should be taken to prevent floating material getting away from the actual place of deposit.

(g) Suitable precautions should be taken to prevent the

outbreak of fires, and the breeding of flies and vermin on or in such deposit.

(h) If the material at any one time consists entirely or mainly of fish, animal or other organic waste, it should be covered over forthwith with earth or other suitable material at least two feet in depth, or buried in the dump at least two feet deep.

(i) Steps should be taken to secure that tins, or other vessels, or loose debris, likely to give rise to nuisance, are not deposited in an exposed condition on or about the dump.

(Refuse which has been laid and covered with soil should be allowed to consolidate before any other layer is deposited on top.

(k) It is not advisable to raise the level of the dump above the surface of the general level of the adjoining ground.

(1) Sufficient and competent labour should be provided in connection with the dump, so that the necessary measures can be taken for the prevention of nuisance.

6. Nuisance from Mosquitoes. Among many cases of nuisance that came under notice during the year, one of a very unusual nature is worthy of being recorded.

Complaints had been received by a local authority of an alleged nuisance arising from large numbers of mosquitoes. The results of the bites of these insects were of varying degrees of severity, probably due to difference in the susceptibility of individuals to the salivary poison of the mosquito, and in some cases the patients were confined to bed. Investigation revealed the fact that certain ditches conveying water had become so silted up and so overgrown with vegetation that a marsh of some twelve acres in extent had been formed by the overflowing water. The swamp and the banks of the ditches were found to be ideal breeding-places for mosquitoes, and three species of these were identified anopheles bifurcatus, culex pipiens and culicella morsitans of which the two first-mentioned bite readily both indoors and out of doors.

In the immediate neighbourhood there had been extensive building of houses since the war; and in view of the risk of septic infection consequent on mosquito bites, in addition to the injury and discomfort caused by the bites themselves, the sanitary officers of the local authority pronounced the ditches to be water courses"in such a state or so situated as to be a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to health" in the sense of Section 16 (2) of the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897. The local authority called on the owner of the lands to abate the nuisance, but eventually legal proceedings were taken, in which the local authority were successful. The Sheriff-Substitute ordained the proprietor" to clear the said ditches of the silt and vegetation. with which they were encumbered, and thereafter to maintain. them clear of silt and vegetable growth.'

7. Stranding of Whales in the Dornoch Firth.-On 20th October the clerk to the local authority of the Easter Ross District of Ross and Cromarty intimated that a school of some 120 whales had been stranded on the mud-banks of the Dornoch Firth, and, in view of the possibility of a grave public health nuisance should the carcases be left to decay, he enquired on whom rested the responsibility for the disposal of the carcases.

The stranding of whales on the shores of the British Isles, especially in the north of Scotland and on the Orkney and Shetland Islands, is not an uncommon occurrence, and the legal position as to responsibility for disposal is fairly clear. "Fishes royal" washed ashore or stranded, whether dead or alive, belong to the Crown, and action for their disposal is taken by the Board of Trade through their local representative, the Receiver of Wrecks. In practice, sturgeons, porpoises, dolphins and certain species of whales are recognised as fishes royal; but the whales commonly found in Scottish waters are of two species-the "bottle-nose" whale and the "caaing (or "pilot") whalewhich are not classed as fishes royal. The term "premises " is defined in Section 3 of the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897, as including "shore"; and in the event of whales not fishes royal being cast ashore, and if the shore can be certified to be a statutory nuisance in the sense of Section 16 (1)—i.e." premises in such a state. . . as to be a nuisance or injurious or dangerous to health "the public health local authority have a duty to take steps to secure the removal of the nuisance. Two courses are open to them; they may require the owner of the premises to remove the nuisance (Section 20 (1)) or, if it is clear that the nuisance does not arise or continue by the act or default or sufferance of the owner or occupier of the premises, they may themselves remove it (Section 20 (3) (b)). The District Clerk was immediately informed by telegraph of the legal position and advised to communicate with the local representative of the Board of Trade.

On 23rd October the whales were identified by experts of the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London, as belonging to a very rare species, the "false killer whale (pseudorca crassidens), and the announcement was received with great interest in zoological circles throughout the world. The Natural History Museum authorities had the skeletons taken to London for distribution to various museums; and, without prejudice to the question whether these whales were to be regarded as fishes royal, the Board of Trade, in consultation with this Department, arranged with a West Lothian firm of manure manufacturers for the flesh and blubber to be taken south for reduction. No question of nuisance from smell arose either during the transport of the flesh and blubber or during the operations at the factory, which was visited on several occasions by the Chief Engineer in company with the sanitary inspector of the West Lothian local authority.

8. Offensive Trades.-During the year two appeals under