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53
HOUSING ACCOMMODATION.
It was estimated that at the middle of the year there were 10,522
houses occupied and 1,276 unoccupied in the district, compared with 10,215
and 1,296 last year. During 1908 the following public buildings were
erected:—St. Peter's Church Hall and the Charles Lamb Memorial Hall and
Institute. The Congregational Chapel at Snells Park has had its interior
renovated to a large extent.
The Council's " Bye - Laws with respect to New Streets and Buildings "
were revised in 1904, and sealed by the Local Government Board on the 8th
June, 1904. They are carried out under the supervision of the Engineer,
Building Inspector and Medical Officer of Health.
By a resolution of the Council, dated April 12th, 1905, it was decided
that the Medical Officer of Health should be the officer authorised to grant
the certificate of fitness referred to in Bye-Law 113, which reads as follows:
"A person shall not let or occupy any new dwelling-house until the drainage
thereof shall have been made and completed, nor until such dwellinghouse
shall, after examination, have been certified by an officer of the Council
so authorised to be in his opinion in every respect fit for human habitation."
(The italics are mine.) The placing of any furniture in a house by the tenant
is occupation in a legal sense, even if he or his family do not sleep there
On my appointment on April 30th, 1906, I was especially asked by
the Council to undertake this duty in addition to my definite statutory
duties, and I therefore visit and inspect all newly-built dwellings, after
receiving certificates from my colleagues, the Engineer and Building Inspector,
that "as far as my department is concerned, the bye - laws have been
carried out." When satisfied as to the fitness, in every respect, for human
habitation, I have forwarded my certificate to the person signing the notice
of completion. If, on the other hand, I have observed any insanitary condition
or defect likely to prove dangerous to the health of future inmates, my
certificate has been witheld, until at a subsequent inspection the condition has
been found improved and the defects made good.
Any contraventions of Bye-Law 113 are reported to the Sanitarv
Committee at their next meeting, and all correspondence and particulars connected
with the contraventions are laid before them; the Committee then
decide whether they will recommend to the Council the prosecution of the
offenders.
The following tables give an account of the work I have clone in seeing
the Bye - Law carried out :—