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13
as I have described at some length in several articles in the
medical reviews. Such working colonies are very difficult to
arrange under the conditions at present exis'ting, when the
Sanitary and Poor Law administrations are each of them
invited to work some portion of the machinery devoted to
Public Health work, with the result that much energy is
wasted in the jealousy which seems inseparable from differing
authorities and is not always absent in committees of the
same authority.
In concluding these remarks let me advise those who
cannot give their children pure milk to make use of skim
milk, and to add fat to the diet in the shape of butter substitutes,
such as margarine and dripping.
If rooms are overcrowded, especially sleeping rooms,
don't be afraid to open the window at night. The night air
is very pnre, it contains less smoke than the day air. Keep
the children out of doors as much as possible.
If your house is damp keep on worrying the Sanitary
Department till the landlord has done his duty and made the
house dry.
HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES ACT.
No action has been taken during the year. Several
small blocks of houses have been put into tenantable repair,
but such work is only makeshift. Houses of this class in
most cases want to be pulled down and rebuilt, though in
some instances a thorough overhaul might suffice. Owners
of properties get out of their liabilities on one of two grounds,
either they know the law very thoroughly and frighten the
authorities by raising technical points, or they raise commiseration
by pleading poverty.
I would refer you again to the scheme I have already
outlined for the Cambridge Road area, and there are certain
small areas might be dealt with—two groups of about ten
or twelve houses, each abutting on the Fairfield, and small
lots of houses in Shortlands Road, and Cowleaze Road.
A street cut through from Richmond Road to Lower Ham
Road would get rid of a lot of old property hardly fit for
people to live in if consumption is to be prevented.