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Company, for example. So far as my experience goes, the public made few complaints; and
certainly there was no evidence forthcoming of injury to health from the use of the water. It might,
perhaps, have been expected that there would have been an increased prevalence of enteric fever;
but, in fact, the prevalence of this disease, and the mortality therefrom, were the lowest on record.
Constant supply has long been given in all parts of the borough. What policy the Water Board
will adopt in regard to the important duties devolved upon them by the legislature, remains to be
seen ; it is to be hoped, in any case, that they will find means of avoiding the practice of cutting-off
the supply to houses for non-payment of rates—a practice which, happily, has for some years been
largely on the decline, consequent on remonstrances addressed to the expiring companies by the
late Vestry, at my instance, and by other public bodies.
CONCLUSION.
In bringing this report to a conclusion, I desire to acknowledge the able assistance received
from Mr. E. R. Hill, chief clerk in the Public Health Department, in the collation of statistics, and
generally. I desire also to bear testimony to the good work of the staff, as a whole, and particularly
to that of the inspecting staff, male and female. Mr. Pettit, the chief inspector, rendered me great
assistance in every respect, and especially in connexion with the important work devolved upon the
Council, under the Factory and Workshop Act, in relation to the Underground Bakehouses, a
subject elsewhere dealt with in this report.
I have the honour to be,
Sir, and Gentlemen,
Your most obedient servant,
T. ORME DUDFIELD,
Medical Officer of Health.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Kensington,
May, 1904.