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118
department in the fourth and fifth classes, although the staff is
doing, and doing well, as important, as necessary, and as technical
work as is any other staff of clerks in the Council's employ. The
clerks in the fifth class have, as regards pay, been put on the same
footing as the men who sweep the streets, and as shorthand typewriters,
although one of them has had some thirty years of commercial
work, and six years in the Council's service, and is now doing
responsible work. I sincerely hope that the Establishment and
General Purposes Committee, or their successors, will right this
wrong at the earliest opportunity and will not allow themselves to
be guided by advice other than that of the head of the Department
who is, or should be, the best judge of the value of the work of
every official working under him.
The Borough of Hackney is one of the largest, in population
and area, of the twenty-eight Boroughs in the Metropolitan area,
and the question of the appointment of an Assistant Medical Officer
of Health may have to be considered by the Council in the near
future if the amount of work should continue to increase as it has
done during recent years. Tuberculosis work, Maternity and Child
Welfare work, and "Housing" work have brought many extra
duties to the hands of the Medical Officer of Health, and it would be
well if he had more time to devote to personal inspections and investigations
in the district. The imposition in the future of additional
duties may still further curtail his time for outdoor work, which
should form an important part of his almost daily routine if he is
to comply with his Official Instructions, one of which states :
"He shall by inspection of his district, both systematically
at certain periods and at intervals as occasion may require,
keep himself informed of the conditions injurious or dangerous
to health existing therein."
The position, therefore, will have to be watched; and, if it be
found necessary in the interests of the Borough, the Council should