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118
enumeration of the current year is published, the
populations of the districts will be obtained, and
certain of the statistics for 1896 collated with
reference thereto. During 1895 an additional clerk
was appointed for a period of six months.
There are no true "cellar dwellings" in the
Parish, but there are many "underground rooms,"
i.e., rooms whose floors are 4-feet or more below
the surface of the adjoining ground. Such rooms
require systematic inspection with (in the first
instance) measurements for the purpose of ascertaining
whether the rooms are in accordance with
the specification laid down in the 96th section of
the Public Health (London) Act, 1891. Unfortunately
it has not been possible to give that
attention to the matter which its importance
demands. The law as to underground rooms
practically stultifies itself in that it is possible to
inhabit such room as a dwelling if it be occupied
in conjunction with any other room (not being
an underground room) in the same house. There
are many houses in the northern half of the Parish
which are built on artificial soil, and so arranged
that the front basement rooms are underground
rooms, some with the ceiling less than 1-foot
above the footway, but the back basement rooms
have their floors a few inches above the surface
of the yard. The front rooms can be used for all
the purposes to which they would be put were they