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142
and a few minor defects. The following sets these out in greater
detail:—
Living rooms.—Walls and ceilings dirty or broken, or both—65.
Verminous—6. Damp—5. Defective floors—7. Defective
roofs or gutters or rain-water pipes—32. Defective
windows or defective sash-lines—36.
Staircases and passages.—Walls and ceilings dirty or dilapidated,
or both—16. Staircases defective—2.
Water closets.—Walls and ceilings dirty or dilapidated, or
both—16. Defective pans or choked—8. Defective roofs,
doors or seats—32. Defective flush or water supply—19.
No fastenings to doors—11.
Sculleries.—Dirty—6. Defective paving, or roofs, or doors,
or walls or windows—40.
Yard paving.—Defective—10.
Dustbins.—Defective—10.
Other nuisances.—12.
The result of the inspection does not, in my opinion, reveal
such insanitary conditions as to justify the dosure of these houses ;
the defects are easily remediable during occupation.
4. No comment is required on this statement. I should like to
remind the Committee that the Nisbet Street class of house requires,
and received before the war, periodical inspection; but owing
to nearly half the staff of inspectors being called up for military
service, periodical inspections have had to be suspended; moreover,
during the last three years there has been increasing difficulty
in obtaining suitable labour and material for house repairs, hence
the Nisbet Street houses and others of the like character have
suffered.