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155
shows signs of diminution. These figures are of grave import,
and bear an intimate relationship to the health of the
community.
During the year a very large number of complaints of alleged
" overcrowding " have been made to the Department, and each
of these has received careful investigation. Most of such
complaints proved to be unfounded or grossly exaggerated. In
244 cases, however, overcrowding has been abated.
Special efforts have also been made to reduce overcrowding in
Bastwick Street, which has for long been a cause of anxiety to
the Local Authority owing to overcrowding and mismanagement
of the houses. As it was found that day inspections yielded
inaccurate results, midnight inspections were made. There are
63 houses in Bastwick Street, many of them registered as Houses
Let in Lodgings. On the first occasion (December 20th, 1901)
we visited nine houses, comprising 64 tenements, containing 158
adults and 114 children (under 10 years of age). In each
tenement we examined the room, and counted the number of
adults and children occupying each room. The standard of
overcrowding which we used was not that wherever there are
more than two persons in a room it is overcrowded, but that
overcrowding shall be measured by actual cubic space, as in
Bye-law 4 of the Bye-laws for Houses Let in Lodgings :—
4. The landlord of a lodging-house or a lodger therein shall not
knowingly cause or suffer a greater number of persons than will
admit of the provision of four hundred cubic feet of free air space for
each person of an age exceeding ten years, and of two hundred cubic
feet of free air space for each person of an age not exceeding ten
years, to occupy, at any one time, as a sleeping apartment, a room
which is not used exclusively for that purpose, and which is under the
control of such landlord, or which has been let to such lodger
respectively, as the case may be.
Judged by Bye-law 4, we found 47 out of the 64 tenements to
be overcrowded. This gives a percentage of overcrowding of
73.4. In 39 out of these 47 cases the overcrowding was
considerable; in the remaining eight it was inconsiderable.
Preliminary notices were served upon the owner.