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76
General Observations.
The effort made by the Public Health Committee to comply with the Council's Resolutions of
January 11th, 1923, which has been outlined above, will, I hope, be considered satisfactory. It
may be regarded as work which is mainly an addition to the normal work carried on in previous
years and does not indicate the full measure of improvement in housing conditions which has been
effected. During the year the ten district Sanitary Inspectors spent a considerable proportion of
their time on housing duties and, indeed, in various directions not covered by the Council's
Resolutions, very active steps have been taken with a view to securing remedies for defects discovered.
It will, therefore, be useful to give a general summary of all the housing work carried
out in the year by the officers of the Public Health Department.
The Sanitary Inspectors inspected 6,112 individual houses, and the total number of visits paid
was 27,006. In 1,238 instances the houses were subjected to a detailed survey under the Housing
(Inspection of District) Regulations, 1910.
The 2,428 houses let in lodgings in the Council's Register at the end of the year 1923, had
been visited on 7,903 occasions.
The issue of notices resulted in the general cleansing of 1,005 houses.
Four hundred and thirty-five underground rooms were surveyed, and 20 were reported to the
Public Health Committee for closure. Orders were issued in 9 cases.
Three thousand and eighty-three of the houses visited were found not to be in all respects
reasonably fit for habitation. In many cases the defects were of a simple nature and easily
remedied, but in a large number the repair works required were extensive in character. In 173
cases the necessary repairs were carried out on verbal representations being made to the owner,
but notices were served under the Public Health and Housing Acts in regard to 2,910 houses.
Some indication of the results of the Inspector's efforts, supported as they were by the Public
Health Committee and the Council, may be gathered from the fact that in no fewer than 2,733
instances the defects were remedied during the year or in the early part of 1924.
A pleasing feature of the year's work has been the very small number of objections raised by
those on whom notices have been served, and I think owners generally may be congratulated
on having given comparatively little trouble by complying expeditiously with the Council's
requirements.

In taking stock of the volume of housing work performed by the Sanitary Inspectors, it must
be borne in mind that these officers are responsible for other important branches of Public Health
work, such as the taking of samples under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, the inspection of food
supplies, the supervision of dairies, the inspection of factories and workshops, the prevention of