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97
GENERAL
SANITARY ADMINISTRATION.
Every year I endeavour to find some new analogy
for the work of the Sanitary Inspectors, in order to
draw attention to its importance and significance to
the health of the Borough. The prosaic figures about
dirty rooms cleansed and defective roofs made sound
do not seem very interesting in themselves, but in
actual fact they represent the perpetual struggle of
the sanitary inspector against the deterioration of the
sanitary environment of the people. As I have
frequently remarked, the real problem is that part of
the housing in the Borough is old and worn out and
from a public point of view is not worth the expense
of repair, while another and still larger part, although
structurally still comparatively sound, is of a type
seriously below modern standards of ventilation,
fighting and amenity and too closely congested. It
is mostly houses of these two types which the sanitary
inspectors have to keep from getting worse. I can
only liken their task to that of Sisyphus, who in Greek
mythology was doomed to push a heavy stone up a
hill, the stone invariably rolling down again when it
reached the top. I do not know whether any of these
old houses actually reach the top of the hill of good
sanitation. Certain it is that many of them are
forever slipping down.