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GENERAL SANITARY WORK.
Inspections.
In Tables G and H. (pages 28 and 29) will be found particulars
of the general sanitary work by the District Inspectors
during 1916.
The house-to-house inspections numbered 490. This is 3,884
below the total for the previous year.
1,643 intimation notices were served, compared with 4,356
in the previous year.
Owing to the depletion of the staff of Inspectors and the
difficulty of replacing them, it was decided to try and manage
with four instead of eight district inspectors. This entailed the
suspension of the house-to-house inspection which seemed the less
urgent part of the work, especially as in many parts of the
borough it consisted in examining houses which had nothing whatever
the matter with them.
This policy at this time had a good deal to recommend it as
it was not only a temporary measure till the end of the war,
which it was thought might not last much longer, but an economic
measure. Later, however, when the agitation for better housing
for the working classes became greater, and the end of the war
appeared further off, the Committee deemed it advisable to try
and replace the inspectors who had gone, by appointing temporary
men in their place. The first attempt was not very successful
as the salary offered, £125 per annum, did not atract any suitable
candidates, but later on temporary inspectors were found when
the maximum salary of the permenant inspectors, viz., £180,
was offered. They did not commence work till 1917.
Smoke Nuisances.
26 observation were kept on chimneys and 16 notices served.
House Refuse.
The following table shows the amount of house and traderefuse
disposed of during the year ended December, 1916:—