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18
new one built, nine other houses in different part of the parish
have been demolished, and new ones on some of the sites are in
course of erection, seven closing orders in respect of 81 to 87 odd
Collingwood Street were determined, the premises having been
repaired. As your Committee well knows action as above can
only lead to the closing and repair or perhaps demolition of houses
unfit for human habitation, and although of the highest possible
importance from a sanitary point of view it provides no solution of
the difficulty of Housing the Working Classes. As regards
housing accommodation we are no better off than at the end of
last year, and so far as one can judge there is no early prospect of
any improvement being effected. This question seems to provide
endless material for discussion at various places. Numbers of
earnest, well-housed, comfortable people meet to hear lectures,
discuss papers, and pass resolutions with more or less unanimity,
and go home again, feeling that at least they have done their
duty ; but with all the theorising and discussion the matter does
not appear to make the slightest progress, and overcrowded London
remains overcrowded.
PETTY CASH ACCOUNT FOR YEAR.
I append a detailed statement of all sums received and expended
for each month throughout the year. From this it will
be seen that the expenditure under this head for the year
amounted to £220 10s. 8¼d. The total amount recovered for the
same period from all sourees amounted to £507 3s. 2d. Of this
£25 9s. 8d. represented costs of drainage works recovered from
owners of premises, and the sum of £10 4s. in respect of prosecutions
by the Surveyor, but which as a matter of convenience was
collected by me with other amounts. The sum of £8 19s. was
also received in fines payable to this authority from prosecutions
instituted by the London County Council. Deducting these and
the drainage accounts, it will be seen that the nett sum recovered
by this department was £462 10s. 6d., against an expenditure of
£220 10s. 8¼d.