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With reference to separate accommodation for women, the notices
chiefly referred to tenement houses wherein each floor, or perhaps
one or two rooms of each floor, is rented by a different occupier, each
of whom employs men and women in tailoring and other industries,
and where the only accommodation is placed either on the ground
floor only, or between two of the upper floors. This is due very
often to the fact that the houses were built as dwelling-houses and
not as workplaces, to which they have now become converted in
whole or part, and for which they are by no means suitable. Very
often the detect was easily overcome by a little re-arrangement, but
in other cases there was no means of providing the additional
accommodation required, with the result that some of the persons
had to vacate the premises.
In respect of the Home Office complaints, I find that 186 were
received from the Lady Inspectors in the last nine months of the
year, and that in 147 it was found necessary to take action; 30 complaints
were received in the same time from the other Home Office
Inspectors, and action was taken with regard to 25 of them.
I find from the summary of the Chief Sanitary Inspector that
1,115 workshops have been inspected, and sanitary defects where
found remedied: thus light and ventilation have been improved in
47 cases, overcrowding abated in 57, extra water-closet accommodation
provided in a number, and 279 workrooms have been cleansed;
199 workrooms were measured, and cards issued stating the amount
of cubic space and number of persons allowable.
Outworkers.
At the end of 1901 there were 1,183 outworkers on the register.
These were engaged in making various kinds of wearing apparel.
It has not been possible for the staff since it was reconstructed to
make any systematic inspection of the houses occupied by these
outworkers, but in 1902 the new Act requires this to be done, so
that the local authority may determine if they are suitable places for
carrying on work.
Home Work Order.—In pursuance of the powers conferred on him
by the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, the Home Secretary has
made the following Order, which may be cited as the Home Work
Order, 1901, and which comes into force on 1st January next:—
I. Section 107 of the Act (relating to lists of outworkers) and
Section 108 (relating to employment in unwholesome
premises) shall apply to the following classes of work :—The
making, cleaning, washing, altering, ornamenting, finishing
and repairing of wearing apparel and any work incidental