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conduct, become permanent tenants. The poorer class sink into the
basement rooms of tenement houses, where accommodation is cheaper,
and their peculiar habits less likely to come under observation.
The action of public bodies in building model accommodation for
housing the working classes is to be commended as models or standards
of what such accommodation should be ; but that they do more than
touch the fringe of the question is apparent, or that they directly
benefit the class for which they were obviously intended must bo
denied, for they do little more than replace, in many instances, the
buildings pulled down to make room for them, and nothing to accommodate
the increase of population caused by immigration, or of excess
of births over deaths. Until public bodies can produce a good-sized
room at 2s. per week for the use of the very poor there is little chance
that they will be successful in competing with the ordinary builder.
Unhealthy Dwellings. —Two houses were certified under " The
Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890," and "Public Health
(London) Act, 1891," as unfit for habitation ; one of these, situated in
the Bolton Road, was condemned on account of the owner neglecting
to comply with the order of the Court requiring him to repair the
drainage, and put the premises into sanitary repair. The other house,
situated in the Vale of Health, was found to be damp, and the rooms
to be deficient in light and ventilation. Closing orders were obtained
in both instances.
Disinfection. —The number of houses disinfected after infectious
disease was 412. The total number of articles disinfected reached 7,951,
showing some decrease on the number of the previous j r ear. Owing to
the extension of the works connected with the Electrical Department at
the stone yard, an interruption of some weeks occurred in the use of
the Lyons Washington steam apparatus, during which period the work
of disinfection of infected articles was, by permission of the Vestry of
St. Marylebone, carried out at their disinfecting station. Our own
apparatus was removed to a convenient site, put into thorough repair,
and supplied with a new boiler, and has since been working in a satisfactory
manner.
Unsound or Unwholesome Food. —The Inspectors have continued to