6
up, but the privy water should be retained in an iron vessel at the privies and
should on no account be allowed to flow into them but should be all daily
removed.
24. I have been much struck with the apparent absurdity of allowing
people on one side of a ditch to live without paying a single pie for the main-
tenance of a proper establishment for their conservancy arrangements, whilst
residents on the other side of it have to pay taxes for this necessary operation.
From the above description it will be seen that the state of the Sudder bazar in
Belgaum is wretched in the extreme, and the establishment sanctioned is in my
opinion utterly inadequate to keep it clean, but it is all that can be paid for out
of the present income, and I would therefore strongly recommend that the same
taxes which are levied in the adjacent town should be imposed in the bazar.
The provisions of the Cantonment Act would have to be enlarged before these
taxes could be enforced, but it is absolutely necessary that the cleaning staff be
increased and this action would, I believe, raise a sum sufficient to pay for the
cost of supervisors and removal of cutehra and nightsoil and putting into force
the sanitary clauses of the Act. In addition to the above taxes, I recommend
that there should be a special halalcore cess, and that all bhungees should, as
they are in Bombay, be declared to be public servants and be paid for out of the
Cantonment Fund.
25. If the additional public privies I recommend are sanctioned, it will be
possible to close many of the private ones and great care should be taken not to
allow any of the existing ones to be under the same roof as the sleeping apart-
ments without an opening being made in the roof like those provided for the
escape of smoke from kitchens. All privies should be paved in rear and all new
ones ought to be detached by an air space of at least 3 feet all round and a
paved passage should be left for the bhunghee and if possible there should be no
roof over it.
26. What is much needed however is skilled daily inspection. The art of
cleaning a town requires to be learnt, and it should be remembered that the
division of the inhabited area into sections over which there is a responsible head
is the keystone of successful practical sanitation. The present conservancy
sergeant is miserably underpaid though he is, I believe a very hardworking man,
but when a change is made it would be well to get up a Sub-Inspector from the
Public Health Department in Bombay, who has been accustomed to superintend
cleansing operations carried out on a system.
27. It will be convenient to mention here that I inspected the Commis
- s a r i a t c a t t l e y a r d . I t w a s e x t r e m e l y c l e a n a n d w e l l k e p t , b u t I a m o f o p i n i o n
the manure should not be stored inside camp and that it should be daily carted
away. It might safely however be used on the Government gardens.
28.
I was surprised to find that although the burial grounds for Europeans
in camp limits have been closed, yet that the bodies of Native Roman Catholics
are still allowed to be buried in the old Roman Catholic burial ground and that
Native Protestants are buried in the adjoining graveyard. Both these places
were untidy and very badly kept, as they were covered with rank vegetation and
no order was preserved in digging the graves. In my opinion they should be at
once closed and a fresh site outside camp near the new English burial ground
should be provided.
29. The Contagious Disease Act is in force in Belgaum Cantonment, and
114 Prostitutes are registered, 22 of whom belong to the town and one comes
from Shahpur a neighbouring Township which is within easy distance of camp
but which is not under British rule as it belongs to the Chief of Sangli and is
therefore foreign territory. I am indebted to Dr. Peters, the Surgeon in charge