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Summary The great amount of work done by the Sanitary
of Sanitary
Operations staff is shewn in Table XVI. The work done was of
during 1895 a very thorough character and reflects great credit on
the Chief and District Sanitary Inspectors.
The house to house inspections, the means by which most
sanitary defects are detected, were up to the average number and
would, if other duties did not make more urgent calls upon the
staff, enable them to inspect every house in the parish during
the year, a result which has been aimed at for some years.
The great number of complaints received from the public, notifications
of the existence of infectious disease, with removal to
hospital in many cases and inspection and disinfection in all,
together with the more systematic testing and re-organisation of
defective drains and other urgent matters, render the inspectors
unable to give more than a comparatively small portion of their
time to this important work. Some premises require and obtain
several inspections during the year from the constantly recurring
defects found therein. It will be seen that the total number of
houses inspected is greater than in former years, notwithstanding
that such inspections formerly were in the majority of
cases from house to house, when, of course, they can be more
readily inspected than when from the prevalence of infectious
disease or other causes each sanitary inspector has to traverse
the whole area of his district daily. Inspections under the
Factory and Workshops Act also add much to the duties of the
staff.
It will be observed by reference to Table XVI., that sixtynine
thousand, four hundred and thirty two Sanitary operations
were carried out during 1896, the largest number yet returned. The
numbers for the years 1892, 1983, 1894 and 1895 are also given
as a means of comparison, the Sanitary Staff having been
augmented in the earlier of these years.
The number of house inspections during 1896 was the
largest yet recorded, thirty-eight thousand seven hundred and