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59
decided that the female workers and the workshops where they are
employed should be visited by a female inspector, the great bulk of
the workshop inspection will fall upon the female inspector appointed
by the local authority. The same remarks will apply with equal
force to the inspection of outworkers' homes. Reference to the list
of occupations of outworkers living in Hackney, shows that the great
bulk of outworkers are females. Here, I think, perhaps an annnal
visit is all that is necessary at present for outworkers, but this I think
should at least be done because the district is getting more and more
overcrowded, i.e., more families are being crowded into houses, so
that unless there is some supervision work may be done by outworkers
under conditions, which would be prejudicial to the workers,
and also tend to the spread of infectious disease. This condition is
becoming worse, owing to the increase of the immigrant classes from
the Continent. At the census of 1901 there were 1,851 male and
1,350 female foreigners resident in Hackney. These persons do not
bring from their homes a very strong belief in the necessity for the
maintenance of a high standard of sanitation, either in their homes or
workplaces. All these circumstances point to the fact, that at least
one inspection of the outworkers homes should, as a routine measure,
be made every year.
The foregoing may be accepted as a measure in some respects, of
the supervision needed in order to fulfil the new duties cast upon
the local authority, in respect to workshops and outworkers. It is
quite clear that the female sanitary inspector, upon whom the bulk
of the inspections must necessarily fall, cannot possibly make the
visits required unaided.
Miss Teebay who was appointed to inspect the workshops,
and to control the conditions under which workers are employed has,
except for a short period, while she was unavoidably absent from her
duties through illness, most assiduously and successfully devoted her
energies to the work she was appointed for: but with all her
perseverance Miss Teebay, was not able to accomplish more than 137
primary inspections of workshops, and 219 of outworkers homes.
Her re-inspections of these premises amounted to 1,151. In