View report page

73
visited was Islington, where, as the sub-committee reported, "the Vestry have provided a most
complete station, comprising two Nottingham disinfectors, and ample laundry accommodation for
washing and cleansing articles, when necessary. A shelter-house to accommodate four families has
also been provided, and a small house erected for the use of the engineer and his wife, who are in
charge of the station. The total cost of this station," it was added, "without charge for land,
amounted to about £4,500, made up as follows:—disinfectors, laundry, chimney shaft, paving and
drainage, £3,500; shelter and caretaker's house, £1,000. The annual expenditure amounts to £350
per annum." The report further stated that the cost of disinfecting and cleansing of infected
articles in Kensington, in the three years 1893-95, had been £2,988, or, on an average, about
£1,000 a year (irrespective of the wages of the disinfecting officer), a sum which was largely
exceeded in 1896, £1,361 having been paid to the contractor in that year. The committee, however,
came to the conclusion, upon what grounds I do not know, that it was not desirable that the Vestry
should provide a disinfecting station, but that the disinfecting and cleansing of clothing, bedding, &c.,
should continue to be entrusted to the present contractors. They accordingly recommended that
no variation be made in the arrangements at present in force for the execution of this work, and
their report was adopted.
TEMPORARY SHELTER OR HOUSE ACCOMMODATION.
The Public Health (London) Act, 1891 (section 60, sub-section 4), imposes on the sanitary
authority the duty of making provision for housing poor persons during the time necessary for
disinfection of rooms after infectious disease. The sub-section is to the following effect: —
"The sanitary authority shall provide, free of charge, temporary shelter or house accommodation,
with any necessary attendants, for the members of any family in which any
dangerous infectious disease has appeared, and who have been compelled to leave their
dwellings for the purpose of enabling such dwellings to be disinfected by the sanitary
authority."
The need for such provision is sufficiently indicated by the fact that in this borough last
year, 123 cases of infectious disease occurrred in families in occupation of three rooms, 239 cases in
families occupying two rooms, and 53 cases in families herded in single rooms. Of the sufferers
in families living in single rooms, 22 had scarlet fever, 22 had diphtheria, and 9 had typhoid
fever. The need of shelter is more especially obvious in the case of families living in single
rooms. The only satisfactory mode of dealing with the matter would be to erect a shelter and
provide it with a proper equipment. Such provision could be economically made in connection
with a disinfecting station. In the absence of accommodation, the sanitary inspectors are
authorised to provide lodging money; it is, however, not easy to find accommodation for the
people, many of whom object to go to a common lodging-house, where, indeed, they would be
neither welcome nor, in their possibly infective condition, desirable guests.
CLEANSING OP PERSONS ACT.
An Act thus intituled, passed in 1897, gives power to the sanitary authority to permit
any person infested with vermin to have the use of the apparatus which the authority may
possess, for cleansing the body and clothing, and provides for the expenditure of any reasonable
sum on buildings, appliances, and attendants that may be required for the carrying out of the
Act. Nominal effect was given to the Act by an arrangement with the Guardians, whereby
cleansing and disinfecting apparatus at the able-bodied workhouse at Mary-place, in the
Potteries, was made available on payment of a small fee by the late Vestry—an arrangement still in
force. Little use has been made of the apparatus, owing possibly to ignorance of the arrangement
on the part of the public, and probably to some extent owing to the locality and ownership
of the apparatus. In the borough of St. Marylebone, a proper equipment having been provided,
thousands of cleansing operations are carried out in the course of the year; much, doubtless, to
the comfort of dirty and verminous persons, who for the most part, I believe, come from a
Salvation Army shelter.
PUBLIC BATHS AND WASHHOUSES.
The baths and washhouses at the junction of Lancaeter-road and Silchester-road,
Notting-hill, opened in April, 1888, are well supported; the washers in the twelve months ended
31st March, 1901,* were 70,869, an approximate increase of 5,550 compared with the number
in the preceding official year; the bathers, 93,822 (including 3,155 bathers of the School Board
Evening Continuation Classes), a decrease of 9,031. Eor the majority of parishioners the site of
the establishment is not sufficiently central for baths, and is too remote for use by would-b?
* Until this year (1900-1901) the yearly statement was made up to 25th March; the present statement is for a
period of 53 weeks ended 31st March.