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The houses are chiefly 4, 5 or 6 roomed. About a third
are occupied by two families. All the houses have been inspected
by the Sanitary Inspector, being comparatively new,
there are few seriously insanitary conditions, but minor sanitary
defects are very common and recur very frequently. Thus
two streets—Mabyn and Hartville Eoads were inspected 18
months ago, and sanitary defects were found in 63 houses out
of 74. They were again inspected by me in July and August,
and sanitary defects found in 48. The defects consist mostly
of damp walls, dirty walls aud ceilings with bugs, dilapidations
of plaster, &c., defective roofs, defective w.c. pans and flushing
apparatus, defective gullies and so on. It will be seen, that,
although these defects would not be usually serious when
existing separately, when several minor defects exist simultaneously,
as is often the case, the house becomes seriously
insanitary.
Overcrowding.—Frequent instances of overcrowding have
been discovered and abated. Overcrowding is, of course, a
comparative term. One may say that, compared with a
healthy ideal, all these houses are overcrowded. But, for
practical purposes, it has been found impossible to demand
more than 300 cubic feet sleeping accommodation in this
class of houses, and, consequently, overcrowding usually means
a less provision than 300 cubic feet for each adult. The fact
that there are 6.6 people to a house, and that the houses are
of the smallest, very few having more than five small rooms,
shows that this district is much more crowded than Plumstead
as a whole.
Drainage.—The ground lying so low, difficulty was naturally
found in draining it. There are two principal sewers in this
district, the Reidhaven Road and the Glenside Road Sewer.
Neither of these sewers has, I believe, a very good fall, and I