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ADMINISTRATIVE WORK. 69
Disinfection.—No changes have to be recorded. Rooms are sprayed with formalin by
the Staff of the Department, and bedding, &c., dealt with by the Council's contractors,
Messrs. Armfield & Sons, Limited. Last year 2,274 rooms were sprayed, a smaller number
than in 1911 (2,857) or 1910 (2,941), but over 16 per cent, more than in 1909 (2,351). Disinfection
was effected privately in 25 instances last year, as compared with 10 in 1911 and
25 in 1910. In each instance a certificate as to the efficiency of the processes adopted is
required from the medical attendant. Disinfection of rooms occupied by persons suffering
from pulmonary tuberculosis is becoming more frequent, the rooms so treated numbering
171 in 1910, 226 in 1911, and 318 last year.
The bedding, clothes, &c., treated by the contractors weighed just over 50 tons last year,
practically the same as in the previous year, while the expenditure on the work amounted to
£1,092, as compared with £1,013 in 1911. The fact that only 7 complaints were received during
the year may be taken as evidence of the general public being satisfied with the manner m
which the contractors do their work. No evidence has been forthcoming indicative of any
failure of the processes of disinfection.
Water Supply.—The number of notices of discontinuance of supply received from the
Metropolitan Water Board in pursuance of Section 48 of the Public Health (London) Act,
1891, fluctuates from year to year in an irregular manner which it is difficult to understand.
In 1909, 84 notices were received ; in 1910, 74 ; in 1911, 41 ; and last year, 62. The causes for
the discontinuance of supply during the past year were reported to have been—
Premises vacated 33 (30) Demolition of premises 1 (0)
Defective water fittings 1 (1) Error made in order 1 (I)
Non-payment of rates 26 (3).
The italic figures in parentheses are the corresponding numbers for 1911.
The inhabited houses from which the supply was cut off numbered 28, one house being
vacated in consequence of the discontinuance of supply, while to 15 others the supply was
restored at once without notice being served by the Department. In the remaining 12
instances notices had to be served requiring the restoration of the supply, summonses being
necessary in 3 cases to secure compliance with the notices.
The most unsatisfactory feature of the records of the past year is the increase in the
practice of cutting off the water supply for the non-payment of the water rate. In 1909, 5
such cases were recorded; in 1910, 10; in 1911, 3; and last year the number rose to 26.
Attention has been called to the undesirableness of this practice in previous reports, and it
is much to be desired that the Water Board should exercise its alternative powers of recovery
of unpaid rates by civil process in preference to taking a step which results in the creation
of a "nuisance" and renders an inhabited house "unfit for human habitation." The increase
in the annual totals just quoted points to a reversion by the Board to a practice which the
old water companies were abandoning at the time that they were abolished.
The attention of the Water Board was specially called (through the Council's Representative
on the Board) to three cases of houses occupied by more than one family where the water had
been cut off for non-payment of rates—apparently in contravention of Section 4 of the Water
Companies (Regulation of Powers) Act, 1887. That section prohibits the cutting off of water
for non-payment of the water rate from a house when the "owner" and not the occupier of the
house is responsible for the rate. In each of the cases here referred to the person who was
liable for the rate was the "owner" within the meaning of the Public Health (London) Act,
1891. Unfortunately the Act of 1887 does not give any definition of the term "owner." The
Board contended that in none of the cases mentioned had there been any infringement of the
Act of 1887.