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116
With respect to the keeping of water-closets supplied with
sufficient water for their effective action.
For securing the cleanliness and freedom from pollution of tanks,
cisterns, and other receptacles used for storing of water,
used or likely to be used by man for drinking or domestic
purposes, or for manufacturing drink for the use of man.
OFFICE ACCOMMODATION.
I was reluctantly forced to bring before the Public Health Committee
the altogether inadequate provision of office accommodation
afforded to the Public Health Department. The following is a copy of
the Report I then submitted:—
REPORT on the Deficiency of the Accommodation, and the necessity
for an Increased Clerical Staff, for the Public Health
Department.
To the Chairman and Members of the Public Health Committee.
Gentlemen,
In consequence of the urgency of these matters, I desire to bring them
before you now, so that something may be decided on before the Vestry rises for its
annual vacation, and that something may be effected during that period.
The staff of the Department consists of Four Clerks, fourteen Sanitary Inspectors,
and the Messenger, in addition to whom there are Mr. Leggatt (Superintendent and
Chief Inspector) and myself.
First, as to the accommodation provided for this staff. At the present time ten
Inspectors perform their clerical work in the large office, in which also the clerical
staff and the Messenger are located. This gives a total of fifteen persons working in
the one room.
Desks are supplied to the clerical staff, to the Messenger, and to eight inspectors.
Two Inspectors have no desks for their papers and books, but write at a table. Four
other Inspectors perform their work wherever they can best find a habitation in the
committee-rooms upstairs. Here, however, their tenure is uncertain and insecure, for
they are frequently hustled from one place so another, according to the exigencies of
the committee meetings. They have, also, every day, to bring their books, papers,
and records upstairs to the place where they may happen to be temporarily accommodated,
and then to bring them back again, This may lead to the loss of documents
or to delay in looking for them, and certainly leads to loss of time.