View report page

17
great extent remedy the evils of which their Sanitary Committee complain,
by using such personal influence in aiding their education, that these people
may use, instead of abuse, the Sanitary Conveniences provided for them,
and to which they have not hitherto been accustomed.
The second paragraph of Mr. Murphy's preface to Dr. Hamer's Report has
reference to the fact that Whitechapel still has an exceptional number of
ill-arranged courts and alleys. If this be so, it is also a fact that they are
chiefly contained within the areas well known as "The Bell Lane Area," and
"Great Pearl Street." It cannot be necessary to recall the fact that these
areas, so far back as 1871, were reprsented to the late Metropolitan Board of
Works, and that progress had been made by that Authority in the direction
of giving effect to those representations, when it was succeeded by the London
County Council. The New Body, by its Committees and Officers, are
thoroughly acquainted with the conditions of the areas, and during the present
year, the Chairman of the Housing of tho Working Classes Committee
admitted to a Deputation of the Whitechapel Board the necessities of the
Case, but pleaded " Want of Funds " as a reason for the Council's inactivity
in promoting a Bill for acquiring the areas under Part 1 of the " Housing of
the Working Classes Act, 1890."
Dr. Hamer commences his Report with certain statistical information with
which the Members of the Whitechapel District Board are familiar, as they
entered into their Medical Officer's Report which was issued in the early part
of the present year.
The Committee do not proposo to discuss the interesting figures which
have been extracted from Mr. Booth's excellent book upon "Poverty and
Associated Conditions," because in such connection it has been shewn that
theory and experience do not always agree with the results which may be
deduced from such observations. It is an admitted fact that the Polish Jew,
like the Native of the South of Ireland, has a strong affection for his home,
be it only a single room: he will use his greatest efforts against being dislodged,
even though one can prove to him that two better rooms may be
provided for him elsewhere for the same rental. With regard to the other
factors, such as excess of young married females, and surplus married males,
mentioned by Mr. Booth, and quoted by Dr. Hamer, although interesting,
they can only indicate the nature of the employments which attract the
latter, and the large number of New Model Dwellings which attract the
former.
Dr. Hamer makes a point of the density of population being high in the
Whitechapel District—240 persons per acre for the whole District, and 313
for the Sub-District of Spitalfields. He might have added 600 persons to an
acre in the Bell Lane Area.
A very little explanation will suffice to discount somewhat the apparent
evil connected with such a high density of population. It must be so where
cottages and small houses give place to huge piles of barracks called Model
Dwellings. It must not be forgotten, in considering the effect of such buildings
upon the future health and Sanitary Condition of a District, that when
such structures are well built, and are inhabited by a selected class of tenants,
comparatively little over-looking by the Sanitary Staff is called for, and the
Sickness Rate, as well as the Death Rate, become much reduced. All Block
Dwellings are not of course equally well built or well occupied, but nearly an