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43
It will be noted that the provisions are not what one may
term precisely clear and determinate, there being a fair amount
of alternatives as well as the usual "Provided." Add to this the
further item that no one seems quite to know what constitutes in
law a tenement house, and in the result one may safely predict a
further complication of what may be termed "latch-key" and
"lodger" cases.
New
Legislation
Relating to
Verminous
School
Children.
During the year there came into force certain powers under
the L.C.C. General Powers Act, 1907, referring to the cleansing
of verminous children and the disinfection of their clothing. To
carry this desirable object into effect, it is, as I understand it, the
duty of the L.C.C. to provide the requisite and necessary
accommodation, or to make agreements with the local sanitary
authorities, under which their existing disinfecting stations and
apparatus may be used for this purpose.
Almost before this Bill had become law we were asked on
the 'phone by certain officials what steps we were taking for
carrying out this measure, and, although neither in fact or law
had any such obligation been thrown on you, certain of the local
Education officials proceeded to send verminous children direct
from school into the office, and with requests, very like commands,
required the bathing and cleansing of the children. In each case
I communicated with the parents, who apparently had not the
slightest intimation of what was being done, and in the end the
children were bathed at the station and sent home.
Your Committee having carefully considered the matter on
several occasions, directed me to refuse to receive any more
children under such circumstances, and ordered the following
letter to be sent to all the Head Masters of Schools in the
Borough:—
Re Verminous Children.
Dear Sir,—
You are probably aware that for some time past children
in a most uncleanly condition have been brought to these Offices
from various Schools in the Borough, with a request that such
children should be bathed and their clothes disinfected.