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132
From time to time, cases of indecent occupation or of sex
promiscuity are brought to the notice of the department. The
following are examples :—
1. The family consisted of the parents, girls 19 and 9, boys
6, 5 years and the baby 9 months. They all occupied one room
for living and sleeping.
2. The family consisted of the parents, sons 19, 10, and
daughters 18, 15, 12, 7 and 5 years. They rented two rooms. In
the front room, cubic capacity 1,086 cubic feet, slept the parents
and the three younger girls in one double bed. In the back room,
cubic capacity 613 cubic feet, the sons 19 and 10 years, slept in a
single bed, while the daughters, 18 and 15 years, slept on the
floor.
3. The family consisted of the father and his 2 daughters, aged
23 and 15 years. They occupied one basement room only. There
was a bedstead, but it had no laths or bedclothes. The three were
said to sleep on the floor on coats and discarded clothing.
4. The family consisted of the parents, sons 24, 20, 18, 12,
and daughters 22 and 14 years. They occupied two rooms each
containing one bed. The parents slept in a bed in one room, while
the daughters slept in the same room on the floor. The sons
slept in the other room.
These cases of sex promiscuity are generally reported as cases
of alleged overcrowding. As a rule, very little difficulty is experienced
in effecting arrangements which make for decency and
propriety, sometimes by a readjustment of the family for sleeping
purposes, sometimes by the family renting an extra room elsewhere.
Customs and Inland Revenue Acts, 1890 and 1903 —
An application was received in respect of two contiguous dwelling
houses, owned in common, and containing six tenements. The
houses were carefully inspected, but no certificates were granted.
The houses bad been brought down almost to ground level in