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the room are dovetailed, bolted, and cemented together; the floor being covered with flooring
boards embedded in a hot-pitch mixture and nailed to scantlings embedded in the concrete.
It is claimed amongst other advantages of this type of buildings, that slabs of any size
likely to be required for housing purposes can be safely manufactured, transported, and erected;
that the strength of the slabs is ample, and that the method of jointing them has proved satisfactory;
that the risk of fire is reduced to a minimum; that the houses are as nearly as possible
vermin-proof, and (if not finished in plaster), can be washed down for cleansing, and that the
buildings can be made attractive in appearance. It is estimated that houses constructed of this
material may be erected at a cost some twenty-five per cent. less than that of brick buildings. It
only remains to be said that the Liverpool scheme was carried out, after a local enquiry, with the
approval of the Local Government Board, who granted the necssary borrowing powers.
BY-LAWS FOR HOUSES LET IN LODGINGS.
The Council's new by-laws having been allowed by the Local Government Board, came into
operation 17th August. The former by-laws had worked satisfactorily for twenty years; but for
reasons explained in previous reports, certain alterations in their provisions had become necessary.
Exception may be taken to the seventh by-law, as it throws upon the occupier (described as the
"landlord") of a house let in lodgings the duty of carrying out the annual work of cleansing.
Often the "landlord" is a person in poor circumstances, who lets one or more rooms to help pay
the rent. The obligation to cleanse falls on the right person in the case of a house let in tenements,
he being the "landlord" in the usual acceptance of the expression, which, in the interpretation
of terms, is defined as follows:—
"'Landlord,' in relation to a house or part of a house which is let in lodgings or
occupied by members of more than one family, means the person (whatever may be the
nature or extent of his interest in the premises) by whom or on whose behalf such house
or part of a house is let in lodgings, or for occupation by members of more than one family,
or who for the time being receives, or is entitled to receive, the profits arising from such
letting."
The seventh by-law, providing for " Cleansing and Ventilation," prescribes that—
"Subject to the provisions of these by-laws, the landlord of a lodging-house shall cause
the walls and ceiling of every room, and of every common passage, landing, staircase, watercloset,
washhouse, and other outhouse thereof, and, where necessary, the walls of the vard
and area, to be thoroughly cleansed and well and sufficiently limewashed at least once in
every year, between the first day of March and the first day of April, or at any other
time, between the thirty-first day of March and the first day of August, which may be stated
in a notice previously given by him to the Sanitary Authority.
"Provided that the foregoing requirement with respect to the limewashing of the
internal surface of the walls of rooms, staircases, and passages shall not apply in any case
where the internal surface of any such wall is painted, or where the material of or with
which such surface is constructed or covered is such as to render the limewashing thereof
unsuitable or inexpedient, and where such surface is thoroughly cleansed and the paint or
other covering is renewed, if the renewal thereof be necessary for the purpose of keeping the
nremises in a clean and wholesome condition."
The duty of carrying out the provisions of the by-law should fall on the person who lets the
house to the occupier—viz., the " landlord " in the ordinary sense of the term.
At present there are about 2,000 houses on the register, of which, in 1905, 7,757 inspections
were made by the sanitary inspectors.