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through holes in walls below the ground level which have been made for conveying gas or water
pipes or electric mains into the buildings. These holes are not always concreted or cemented up
when the pipes have been laid and the rats are able to bore through between the pipes and the
brickwork. The 33 discovered instances during the past year of this system of life amongst rats in
various parts of North and South Kensington indicate the importance of thoroughly closing up all
holes which may be made below the ground level in the walls of houses and business premises. In
each instance the removal of the rat runs and cementing of these holes have removed the trouble.
In many cases, rats have been found to gain access to buildings through broken
ventilating gratings in walls below the ground floor level. The renewal of the defective grating,
together with the laying of a few poison baits, removes the trouble.
Premises adjacent to railway lines often suffer severely from rat infestation and much attention
has been given during the past year to complaints in several roads adjoining railways, particularly
Warwick Road, Blechynden Street, Silchester Road and Walmer Road.
The Council's Wood Lane Depot and the Lots Road and Kensal Road Wharves have received
constant attention, with the result that the number of rats caught at these places has been reduced
to less than half the numbers caught several years ago.
Sewer men in the Borough Engineer's Department, on completing work at manhole entrances,
make a practice of leaving a number of baits on ledges above the level of the water in the sewers.
During the National Rat Week Campaign, held in November, the Borough Surveyor placed at
my disposal a gang of flushers, who laid 12,000 poison baits at a large number of manhole entrances.
A lantern slide, stressing the importance of rat destruction and indicating that advice thereon could
be obtained at the Town Hall, was shown at each performance at various Cinematograph Theatres
in the Borough during Rat Week.
Of the two common kinds of rats, the brown variety is the one more commonly found in this
Borough, the black rat having been discovered on only two occasions since 1920. It is the latter
which is the more likely to spread disease and it is thus fortunate that such trouble as does
arise is almost invariably due to the less dangerous variety.

* The residential area is the total area less (1) roads, (2) open spaces, and (3) land covered by buildings other than dwellings.