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62 HOUSING.
There is no doubt that the work of the Department during the past three years has
resulted in a general raising of the standard of sanitation in all the premises coming within
the scope of the Factory Act. Nearly all the defects reported during the year in workshops
were discovered in places which had not previously been known to the Department. The
Inspectors report that they have been cordially received by the occupiers when making their
inspections, and that their suggestions have been largely acted on.
Housing.
This subject will be dealt with under the following sub.heads:—
(i.) Houses let in lodgings ;
(ii.) Common Lodging Houses
(iii.) Housing of the Working Classes Acts ; and
(iv.) Remission of Inhabited House Duty.
Houses let in Lodgings.—The supervision of these houses was considerably hampered
by the doubtful validity of the (then) existing by.laws. The decisions given in November
and December of 1903* rendered a re.modelling of the by.laws necessary, all hough the
practice of the Department had always been on the lines indicated by the Lord Chief Justice,
that is to say, proceedings were never instituted for an infringement of the by.laws without
notice being first given. As, however, the decisions referred to declared in effect that the
old model by.laws of the Local Government Board (the basis of the local series) were invalid,
the latter could not be relied upon for legal work. It was therefore thought advisable to
take only urgent cases into Court, and a number of tenements which under ordinary procedure
would have been cleansed in April remained dirty (more or less) pending the confirmation
of the new by.laws. The draft of the new series was submitted to the Local Government
Board in December last.}
Registration.—At the end of 1903, 851 houses were on the Register. During 1904
217 houses were visited for the purpose of registration, of which 185 were placed on the
Register, and C houses on the Register at the end of the previous year, were struck off owing
to the operation of the exemption clauses of the by.laws. To secure the information
prescribed by the by.laws, 148 notices and 60 " reminders " were issued, but no summonses
were required. The total number of inspections for purposes other than the annual cleansing
was 3,511. Appended is a general summary of the housing conditions in tht houses visited.
The large proportion of exempt houses in group B is worthy of notice.

* Stiles v. Gali'isky, and Nokes and Nokes v. Mayor, &c., of Islington.
†The by.laws were confirmed in February, 1905.