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REPORT ON THE SANITARY INSPECTION OF
THE DISTRICT FOR THE YEAR 1945.
By G. A. Webber,
Chief Sanitary Inspector.
The total number of visits of inspection made by the Inspectors
uring 1945 was as follows:—
Initial Visits 2,703 Revisits 3,008

The routine examination of properties was reduced to a minimum
during the year, owing to the extra duties necessitated by war,
plus the unavoidable reduction of staff. In the early part of the
year a great deal of time was spent on the salvage of war-damaged
foods, and it is pleasing to be able to report that it was found
necessary to condemn only a small proportion of the scores of tons
of food sorted after exposure to enemy action.
COMPLAINTS—ABATEMENT OF NUISANCES.
Particular attention has been paid to complaints considered by
members of the public to be matters affecting public health.
The Public Health Act, 1936, states that any person aggrieved
may make complaint of a statutory nuisance before a Justice of the
Peace. Orders for abatement, and penalties for the disobedience
of Orders, may be made. Complaint, however, is usually made to
the Public Health Department of a local authority, whose duty it
is to investigate the matter. In almost all cases, the Sanitary
Inspector undertakes this work on behalf of his Authority. The
public, quite properly, is quick to grasp its right to lay a complaint,
but is, perhaps, slower to realise that the information given forms
only one part of the structure which may have to be built before
abatement of a statutory nuisance is secured. A complaint, possibly
outlined vehemently to an impartial Officer, falls into its first category
as an alleged nuisance. Personal investigation by the
Sanitary Inspector either results in its establishment as a confirmed
complaint of a statutory nuisance, or its discard as not being of that
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