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from this cause. This satisfactory result is admittedly due in a large
measure, if not entirely, to the removal of nearly all cases of
small-pox out of London, and this was the outcome of the deputation
of the Sanitary Authorities, and other public bodies, to the
President of the Local Government Board on April 23rd,
1881, the primary object of the deputation being to present the
resolutions adopted at the Conference of Sanitary Authorities,
held at the Town Hall, 23rd March, to consider the question of the
Compulsory Notification of Infectious Diseases, a measure for
which London had to wait a further period of eight years. The
proceedings at the deputation were reported very fully in the British
Medical Journal for May 7th, 1881, page 744. And in my Annual
Report for 1880-81, page 57, may be seen not only the history of
the movement, originated by your Vestry, to secure Compulsory
Notification, but also the story of the circumstances which led up
to my recommendation of the removal of small-pox cases out of
London for isolation and treatment; a recommendation which was
acted upon by the Local Government Board and the Asylums Board
with such promptitude, that within two or three weeks, hundreds
of patients were comfortably housed at the Darenth "Camp," and
the "difficulty" of hospital accommodation for sufferers from this
disease was solved once and for ever with the happy result above
indicated.
8.—"Notting Dale" and the Jubilee.—In the previous report
certain suggestions were made, in the hope that they might be
found useful to the Committee which had been appointed "to give
effect to the loyal feelings of the parishioners, by the promotion of a
scheme having for its object the amelioration of the condition of
the inhabitants of that limited district in the parish to which public
attention has for some time been prominently drawn"—in other words,
the "Notting Dale" special area. The main suggestion had for
its object the "amelioration of the condition of the inhabitants" by
the provision of healthy and decent homes for them. The report
was forwarded to the several members of the Committee who
appear not to have entertained the suggestion. They appear, rather,
to favour the proposal that, in the first instance, their scheme
should embrace the provision of a Creche for children; the
provision of club-rooms for men and women; and the
erection of a People's Hall for entertainments, music, gymnastics,
and classes. Very excellent things in their way, as supplementary
to the provision of healthy and decent homes for the persons proposed
to be benefited. In view of the possibility that the Representative
Committee might not adopt the suggestion to provide such
homes, I briefly referred to the power of the London County Council