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193
The expenditure is too great, and might be very materially
reduced, were the work done without the intervention of a
contractor, as recommended by the London County Council
and by the Metropolitan Asylums Board. The money that
might be saved could be put to good use in making provision
for carrying out, more thoroughly, the duties of the sanitary
authority, by the appointment of additional inspectors.
Disinfecting Station.—The question of the "desirability
of erecting a disinfecting station, and providing a
shelter for persons displaced from their homes during the
progress of disinfecting work," was referred by your Vestry to
the sanitary committee, who reported thereon, in July, 1896.
A sub-committee had been appointed to view stations and
shelters. One of the places visited was Islington, where, as
the sub-committee reported, "the Vestry have provided a
most complete station, comprising two Nottingham disinfectors,
and ample laundry accommodation for washing and
cleansing articles, when necessary. A shelter-house to
accommodate four families has also been provided, and a small
house erected for the use of the engineer and his wife, who
are in charge of the station. The total cost of this station,"
it was added, "without charge for land, amounted to about
£4,500, made up as follows:—disinfectors, laundry, chimney
shaft, paving and drainage, £3,500; shelter and caretaker's
house £1,000. The annual expenditure amounts to £350
per annum." The report further stated that the cost of disinfecting
and cleansing of infected articles in Kensington, in
the three years 1893-95, had been £2,988, or, on an average,
about £1,000 a year (irrespective of the wages of the disinfecting
officer); a sum which was largely exceeded in 1896, £1,361
having been paid to the contractor in that year. Information
which I laid before the committee went to show that a station
and a shelter could be erected for a less amount than had