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223
SANITATION OF PUBLIC ELEMENTARY
SCHOOLS.
Acting upon the instructions of the Sanitary Committee,
the several Inspectors, in June last year, visited and reported
on the condition of the public elementary schools in the
parish. The reports of the Inspectors having been submitted
to the Committee, notices were issued requiring the execution
of necessary sanitary works. The several notices were accompanied
by a circular letter to the school managers, intimating
that your Vestry desired that the specified works might
be carried out during the summer holidays. The Inspectors,
subsequently reported that nearly all of the said works had
been satisfactorily completed, and that the persons responsible
for their execution had manifested a proper anxiety to
comply with the requirements of the Committee. The inspections
referred to did not extend to the underground drainage
of the several schools, to which attention will have to be given.
Some of the head teachers at Board Schools made application
last year to the Works Committee of that body for
a supply of disinfectants, which they may well have thought
requisite, in view of the large number of children absent
from school on account of illness, much of it of an infectious
character,* and of the incessant use made of the sanitary
conveniences. In one such case the Clerk to the Board
informed the head teacher that "several applications for disinfectants
had already been submitted to the Works Committee,
and in each case had been declined:" it was stated,
however, that " an application could be made by the schoolkeeper
to (your) Vestry for a supply of disinfectants." Such
an application was made, but before complying with it, I
deemed it my duty to consult the Sanitary Committee, who
* It was stated that at one school out of 2,130 children on the roll, some 570
were absent, the average number in attendance in the week ending 9th December,
being about 1,560, instead of 2,130.