(The following artcte on the task of the International Settlement clean iz be te courtesy of the Commistioner of Ful seeping the streets and alleyways of on information: furnished through ie Works)
The cleaning of Settlement roads may stem at frst sight too simple and prosaic to be of any interest to the general public, "but while It Provides no great thrills and docs not call for a high degree of engincering knowledge, a little consideration will show that' the dally cleaning of nearly 200 miles of roads and alleyways requires a good. organization and careful and reliable supervision it it fs to be, as it should be, both Jemcient and economical, As the result of step-by-step revision over the last few years, the procedure followed may now be said to have reached this condition, anda brief account of it may be of Interest.
Of the 163 miles of roads under the control of the Council, 149 are cleaned daily, as well as 35 miles of Public alleyways, Some 900 coolies are engaged in this work and as they are distributed all over the Settlement, and from the nature of their work constantly on, the move, it would seem an easy matter for many of them to spend large part of their day in a ten shop lor engaged in other work.
The "Beat" System In reality, St is very dificult for any coolie to shirk his work, Each man is given a "beat for which he is responsible, the length of the beat depending on the population density land type of pray the shortest beat being 100 yards and the longest 1,900 yards.
They are mustered at the depots at $43 am, and each coolie is pro: vided with a bass broom, a bamboo. broom, a soft broom, a "fungky!" (or Jdust pan), a red coat and @ machine His rst duty Is to see that all the footways on his "beat" are cleansed dust and litter, everything being Jswept into the channel at the kerb side and collected there by sweeping with a bamboo broom. This work which inevitably raises some dust, has to be completed by 7.30 am. be: fore the general public is al After this early cleansing, the utter that collects throughout the day Jean be swept up by a soft. broom made of the soft hairy bark of the palm tree which raises no dust If Properly used, During the tiffin interval, 11 a.m, to 1 pin, relief coolies, from other work £0 organized as to provide them, jerry on the cleaning until. the regular sweeping coolies return, After 1 pam. the pavements are again swept with the bamboo broom followed by soft broom sweeping for the rest of the day.
wet weather the soft broom cannot be used and the hard bass bus conductors and has committed his thefts while on moving buses as well in the stations where conductors deposit their receipts. He is only. young man and when he finishes his goal term it ig not improbable that he will try working his "speciality"
Under the heading of Larceny by Trick isa man. who abstracts, chromium-plated signs from Chinese shops on the pretence that he has been sent (o "clean and repair" them.
sells the chromium as serap metal, He perpetrated the crime four tines fore he was finally trapped by adherence to this type of theft, He Is now serving a ten months sentence in the Ward Road Gaol. He d veloped his "sreciallty" after having been unsuccessful as a thief of the bogus workman variety.
Sometimes a gang specializes robbing a certain type of premises. Last year, for instance, the Police were able'fo connect band arrested for looting a wine-shop with four other wine-shop robberies, Under "specialists" also are listed ]garage thieves, persons who take only telephone cable, motor-car batteries, motor accessories or electric fans, and hat thieves. The hat grabbers agai are divided into classes according {0 the localities in which they perpetrate their crimes. "One man, for instance, chose @ certain large theatre for his operations and when he was arrested eleven charges of stealing hats there were preferred against him. Others snatch hats from passengers in buses, tramcars and trolley buses, from outside, as the vehicles start." This kind of theft, usually committed by boys with good running legs, naturally is not possible in winter when tram and bus windows are closed, 'A fairly recent innovation is the keeping of a separate file of all in-Jdividusis according to the type of crime and method used. It is a bretly thorough system. broom, of the usual western typo made of West African bristle, Is used instead. At certain points barrows laced to hold the little until it is collected by lorry. Many of these [barrows have recently been dispensed with, the sweepings being placed. in receptacles in alleyways and removed Juy House Refuse Collecting Coolles.
Nuisance coolies and public alley-
different plan, each man being given vay. suregpers work on a rather an area within which he must work a time schedule which permits Jbim being checked on his work, Jaddition to sweeping and cleaning public alleyways, these coolles attend {to nuisances on' vacant. ground, and Jclean, ar, and disinfect -all urinals, oficial and unoMelal, of which ther fare 4,046 in the Settlement,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.