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100
number of the houses coming under these by-laws have
so far been formally registered.
RENT AND MORTGAGE INTEREST
RESTRICTIONS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1933.
During the year one application for a certificate
as to the state of repair of a house was received.
WATER SUPPLY TO NEW HOUSES.
During the year 75 new houses were certified as
having a proper and sufficient water supply.
SMOKE NUISANCE.
During the year, 67 formal observations of smoke
shafts were made and 3 intimation and 1 statutory
notices were served.
NOISE.
I regret to report no progress in dealing with preventable
noise, now generally recognised as conducive
to ill health. Complaints continue to be received
about this evil. Apart from unnecessarily loud street
noises, industrial processes are frequently carried on
regardless of the hearing and nerves of the workpeople
and residents in the vicinity. When, as
sometimes happens, work is carried on at rush periods
late into the night, children and adults, who have to
rise early, and who are compelled by the housing
shortage to five in the neighbourhood, are deprived of
proper sleep. They naturally apply to the Public
Health Department for assistance, and quite rightly,
cannot understand our apparent helplessness or how
the law can be so stupid as not to recognise as a
" nuisance " something which is at least as bad as a
bad smell in its effect upon health.