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96
It is a matter for satisfaction that there has become
manifest, on the part of employers, an increasing willingness
to conform to the requirements of the law, with which
many of them had been more or less unacquainted, until they
were made known by the visits of the first lady inspectors, and
by the notices issued by the sanitary committee. The inspector's
visits are now received, as a rule, with marked cordiality.
In no respect have they done greater good than by the prevention
of overcrowding, and the improvements effected with
regard to the warming of workrooms, and the ventilation of
gas iron-heaters, &c. The good work begun by Miss Deane,
Miss Squire, and Miss Duncan, has been efficiently carried
on by Miss de Chaumont, who has performed her duties with
tact and discretion, to my entire satisfaction, and, what is of
more importance, to the satisfaction of the sanitary committee,
the body to which the carrying out of the duties
which devolve upon your Vestry, as the local authority under
the Acts, has been delegated.
Lady Inspectors.—The initiative of your Vestry, in 1893,
in employing women to assist in sanitary administration, is
being followed, but somewhat slowly, by other metropolitan
sanitary authorities; the movement has extended to the
provinces, and there is ground for hope that the practice will
in time become general, whether by requirement of law or
otherwise. Seven vestries, &c., in London, have appointed
women inspectors, viz.: Islington, St. Pancras, Hackney, St.
Marylebone, Poplar, Battersea and St. George the Martyr,
Southwark. The last-named body (population of district,
60,000) employs two women, the other six one each. As to
the value and success of the movement in this parish there can
be no question; it has long since passed out of the experimental
stage.