View report page

of the inspector was called to the premises by complaint being
made, by the occurrence of infectious disease, or by house-tohouse
inspection of the street. At present all this information
is only to be collected from several books, and in cases of
inquiry it takes a long time to find out when such and such a
house was visited and what work was done. Owing, however,
to the pressure of other clerical work on your staff it has been
impossible to keep it up, and unless another clerk is provided
for the department it will have to be dropped altogether.
Another book which is now being kept is a record of the
answers to the questions that are set out in the form which
appears in detail in the remarks relating to diphtheria. The
extra work entailed in collecting this information has been
considerable, and the book is at present much in arrear owing
to the impossibility of keeping it up except by letting other
work go.
In all 2,399 houses were disinfected and 3,100 lots of
bedding, the latter consisting of 4,381 beds, 917 mattresses
and 5,162 palliasses, together with a large number of sheets,
wearing apparel, &c.
I am glad to be able to repeat the remark I made last
year as to this work having been done without a single
complaint against your disinfecting staff. Although there
have been several requests for compensation for damage your
Committee have not granted them, as it has always been
proved that it was impossible to avoid the infliction of such
damage.
In conclusion I have to express my thanks to the
inspectors for much assistance cheerfully given, and to the two
clerks, who have used their utmost endeavours to make up for
their small number, and to whom I am indebted for great help
rendered me in the preparation of the statistics for this report.
I am, ladies and gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
FRANCIS STEVENS.