View report page

20
sent in September last the following bald facts were
set forth, no mention whatever being made of
poverty :—Man and wife, and two girls aged
respectively 15 and 13, and a baby, occupying one first
floor room for both living and sleeping, one of the
girls attending school in a verminous condition and
the bedding being dirty. Upon inspection the
following conditions were found :—Father a boot
finisher till recently out of work and now on very
short time ; daughter aged 15, pattern card maker,
earning 4/- per week; bed and mattress, but apparently
no clothes for covering ; the two girls slept on the
floor. The Committee had the room and bedding
disinfected immediately and gave a liberal period for
the family to obtain more accommodation which they
eventually did in November.
The following letter was, with the consent of the
Committee sent to the person making the complaint—
"Madam,
Adverting to your letter of the 18th, and in further
reply thereto, as requested I beg to add for your information
that there can be no doubt as to the rooms being overcrowded
but this case like many others is very difficult to deal with on
account of the poor circumstances in which the family are found
to be living.
Such mattress and bedding as exist are dirty ; they have
no bed clothes for covering and it would not be surprising if the
child attending school was at times verminous as there appears
to be no change of linen or hardly any other necessities.
I shall, ot course, report the facts to my Committee, but it
seems that if they are turned out of this room they will only
drift to another.