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159
HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES ACT.
No notices under these Acts were served during the
year. There were, however, two notices outstanding at
the end of 1908. One of these was complied with this year.
As regards the other, legal proceedings were instituted in
March, with the result that the Magistrates made a closing
order, and the owner of the premises was fined £1, with
8s. costs.
GIPSIES AND TENT DWELLERS.
These people again gave us a considerable amount of
trouble. As I have stated in previous reports, the
inhabitants of the neighbourhood in which the camps are
formed are continually being annoyed, and frequently
insulted, by the women and children knocking at the doors
begging or asking for water. Also, too, it is well known
that these nomads are generally filthy in their habits, and
the surroundings of the camps soon become very
insanitary. During the year a large piece of land upon
which the gipsies used to place their caravans and pitch their
tents, was fenced in with posts and barbed wire bv the owner.
If all owners of similar pieces of building land would do
likewise, it would be a very effectual way of getting rid of
these most objectionable visitors. However, I am still of
the opinion that it is quite time the Legislature adopted
some stringent measures to prevent these people trespassing
upon private lands, living in squalor and under insanitary
conditions, and allowing the children to remain uneducated.