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25
houses were on the register at the beginning of the year.
During the year I recommended, at various times, the addition
of 68 houses after specially inspecting each. A few were registered
and still remain on the register. Of the others, a large
proportion were ordered to be registered, but the notice to
register had the effect that the occupiers or lodgers were turned
out, and the houses reduced to occupation by one family. The
remainder the Committee did not consider required to be registered,
but ordered them to be kept under observation for a time.
Of course wherever pronounced overcrowding or other conditions
were found these were remedied after notice. There
remain on the register at the present time twenty houses.
78. As the above facts testify there still remains very strong
prejudice against the registration of these houses. I believe
that already this prejudice is beginning to wear off a little now
that landlords see that the registration in no way resembles
that of common lodging houses. There is no doubt that the
registration is of great value in promoting the sanitary condition
of these houses. They are inspected at least twice a year,
and the regulations facilitate the removal of nuisances, by
making it unnecessary to prove a nuisance before any cleansing
can be ordered or overcrowding put a stop to.
79. One reason why more houses were not ordered to be
registered was the well known difficulty that persons ejected
on account of the notice to register would have in procuring
house accommodation elsewhere. The class of people usually
found in houses which require registration have very great
difficulty in finding a landlord who will accept them as tenants.
Nearly all the new houses built are designed for the better
class of artisans to buy for their own use. The working man
on 24/- a week, with half-a-dozen children, is not catered for.