View report page

23
never diminished to any appreciable extent. It is only
moved about from time to time, and it seems certain that
until the conditions of life producing it are entirely remodelled
no permanent improvement can in the main be
hoped for.
The only question of interest to practical men appears
to be, what is proposed to be done in connection with this
matter? As already stated above, your Committee are
constantly serving notices and dealing with the worst of
these cases, but no one can honestly pretend that the continued
hunting and chasing of a few score of the poorest
and most miserable of these poor people from pillar to post
is of any real use to the people themselves or the community
at large. It has been suggested amongst many other things
that the class of population amongst which these cases so
constantly recur should be removed in bulk to the workhouses
or other institutions to be dealt with by the Poor
Law authorities. Whilst your Committee express no opinion
on the practicability of this suggestion, they report they have
not the legal power, nor the desire, to carry out this
suggestion without further consideration.
Generally:—
1. The men require regular work and wages.
2. The women require tuition in all that pertains
to mother-craft and the personal and domestic hygiene
of healthy and decent home life.
3. The children require feeding, cleansing and
clothing on lines they have never yet experienced.
(Received.)
J. W. Ward,
Chairman.
Consideration of this paragraph of the report of the
Public Health Committee, dated the 21st June, 1911, was
deferred by the Council at its meeting held on the 6th