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61
OVERCROWDING.
In June, 1937, the Council were informed that it was the intention
of the Minister to fix the 1st July,1937, and the 1st January, 1938, as
the appointed days for the purposes of Section 62 and Sections 6 (2),
59, 60, and 69, respectively.
With few exceptions, the houses in this Borough had been previously
measured by the District Inspectors, and so the amount of work
necessary for supplying permitted numbers of persons to landlords was
considerably reduced. It was, however, necessary to engage the services
of a comptometer operator and machine for the purpose of computing
the floor areas from the measurements supplied by the Inspectors.
Unfortunately, the survey carried out in 1935, failed to reveal the
positions of the rooms in houses occupied by two or more families; Form
A showed only the number of rooms occupied, and Form B, the purposes
for which the rooms were used, i.e., sleeping, living or living and sleeping,
so that although the sizes of the rooms were known, it was impossible
to identify families with particular rooms, and consequently, in houses
having several rooms under 110 square feet in area, the permitted
number could not be given.
It was apparent that the only means of solving this difficulty was
to re-enumerate those houses occupied by more than one family, and a
temporary staff of 29 enumerators and clerks was engaged for this
purpose.
For this survey, the form, of which a specimen completed copy is
reproduced later in this report, was used. It will be seen that this
form, when completed, provides all the necessary information, and, in
addition, will lend itself to alterations caused by changes in tenancies.
The period for "review cases" was the same as that taken for the 1935
Survey, i.e., two years.