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(b) For the registration of houses so let or occupied.
(c) For the inspection of such houses.
(d) For enforcing drainage for such houses, and for promoting
cleanliness and ventilation in such houses.
(e) For the cleansing and lime-washing at stated times of
the premises.
(f) For the taking of precautions in case of infectious disease.
The number of such houses on the register is 289, the whole of
which were inspected at least twice during the year with a view to
seeing that they comply with the bylaws as regards cleanliness, overcrowding,
etc.
The inspections reveal a number of very unsatisfactory conditions.
For years only about 10 per cent. of sub-let houses have been registered
as such. Another point is the difficulty in separating the sexes, which
is so desirable from a moral point of view, for promiscuous sleeping
together of persons of opposite sex may be a. greater evil than overcrowding.
In the lower parts of Deptford we have insisted upon a
proper water supply to each floor of a tenement house, but we still have
houses of this description in the borough with only one water tap
for the use of the various families. This tap is, as a rule, fixed in
the scullery on the ground floor, therefore all tenants, except those
on this floor, are obliged to carry pails of water upstairs to their rooms.
This leads to the water for cooking and drinking purposes being often
stored in undesirable places where it is liable to contamination.
Seeing that all the water for drinking and domestic purposes has
to be carried and stored in this way it follows, as an inevitable result,
that very little water is used, and this does not conduce to habits of
cleanliness. Usually the only sink accommodation is on the ground
floor. All waste water from the sub-let rooms above has to be carried
to the ground floor and poured down the sink in the scullery. This,
besides being inconvenient, is a source of annoyance to the other tenants,
especially to the occupier of the kitchen or other room through which
the waste water has to be carried. Under these circumstances it is a
very difficult matter for personal clothing to be properly washed, or for
washing of any kind to be efficiently done. The rooms above the
ground floor having been built for use as bedrooms are not provided
with a proper place for the storage of provisions. This results in
such foods as milk, meat and fish deteriorating much more rapidly
than would be the case under proper conditions of storage, and permits
of these and other foods being contaminated by flies and dust. Further,
the small bedroom fireplaces found in such rooms are quite unsuitable
for cooking purposes, and in many cases the grates are so small that a