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instruction requiring the reconstruction or amendment of the
defective drains, etc., as the circumstances required. It was
unnecessary in eight other cases to exercise the powers
granted, as in each case the owner's builder exposed the
drains and afterwards effected the necessary repairs or renewals.
House Drainage.—The drainage systems and sanitary
arrangements of 13 houses have been entirely reconstructed,
extensive amendments or repairs were carried out at 49 other
houses, and at 19 houses the drainage systems have been made
water-tight by the patent internal process.
House to House Inspection.—During the year, house to house surveys were carried out at 245 houses.

House Inspection.—Either as a result of inspections made
on complaint, in consequence of the occurrence of infectious
disease, request by occupiers, and other general inspections,
883 houses were visited. Table III. shows a list of sanitary
works executed at these houses, together with defects remedied
during house to house inspection.
Overcrowding.—This matter still causes the Department
much anxiety, particularly on account of the fact that whilst
cases of overcrowding are observed and reported to the Authority,
the remedy is as elusive as before. In the majority
of cases the persons affected would be only too pleased to
obtain more suitable accommodation, providing they could
do so at an economic rent, but when a suitable house becomes
vacant it is most times found that the rent to the new tenant
—should the house be again let—is exorbitant. In two cases
within my knowledge, houses which had been let at 14s. per
week, on being re-let, were rented at 30s. per week. In
another case the rent was a little over 12s., and is now 18s.
per week.
In a. number of instances flats, some of which are not
self-contained, comprising usually three rooms, are being let
at 30s. per week.
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