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6
The instances were more numerous where adults, such as youths of
15, 17, 19, 20 years of age, were found to be sleeping in the same
room as their parents, or of adult school children sleeping with parents.
With a standard of 400 cubic feet of air space, it is possible to
have crowding as distinct from overcrowding. 1,000 cubic feet of air
space per person is a standard more applicable to modern notions of
sanitation.
I append a list of the streets, roads and places where the houses
examined were situated, together with a table of all cases of overcrowding
that were detected.
It will be noted that 2 of these occurred in No. 1 Ward; 12 in
No. 2 Ward; 3 in No. 3 Ward; 4 in No. 5 Ward; 2 in No. 6 Ward;
and 1 in No. 7 Ward.
Overcrowding may be divided into two classes. In the first class
I would place those who from want of means are not able to afford by
payment of rent, the cubic space that is necessary to escape illegal overcrowding.
In the second class I would include those who are found to
be overcrowded in certain rooms, whilst having the necessary accommodation
in other rooms which are not at the moment used. This
condition usually occurs in bedrooms either tenanted by children, or
lodgers. Thus in our recent examination cases frequently occurred
where 3 or 4 children were found sleeping with their parents and
illegally overcrowded in a small bedroom, whilst all the time a livingroom
or best parlour was left empty.
Avarice also plays its part; a case came under notice in which
9 adults and 12 children occupied 7 rooms, the landlady compelling
her 3 children to sleep in a scullery, her better rooms being either
unoccupied or let to lodgers.
A class of property not always suspected of overcrowding is to be
found occupied by shopkeepers, who sub-let. From the important
external appearance of these shops they often escape the vigilance of
the Sanitary Authority. It is not unusual to find cellar dwellings
illegally occupied. A tradesman will sometimes have two or more