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women, and the work having been carried out between the service of the
summons and the hearing, costs only were ordered to be paid (p. 72).
It is a defect in the Act that a certain amount of floor space is not
required as well as a certain amount of cubic space for each worker, for
it sometimes happens that very high rooms may give the requisite
amount of cubic space to comply with the law, and yet, as the organic
matter exhaled in the breath does not, as a rule, rise above 14 feet,
the condition of the cubic space under that limit may be such as to
produce the effects of overcrowding. The insertion of a floor space
limit, as is clone in the requirements for schools and hospitals, would
obviate this difficulty.
Underground Workrooms.—On the question of underground workrooms,
the Chief Sanitary Inspector states:—
" One of the difficulties the staff has to contend with is the
ventilation of underground workrooms. These, as I pointed out last
year, are steadily increasing, and in the majority of such cases the
ceilings are on a level with the street paving, rendering it impossible for
the light of day to enter, sunlight never penetrates, and natural
ventilation is unobtainable. Artificial light is always necessary, mechanical
means of ventilation have to be provided, and the air must be
polluted by exalations from horse droppings and dirt when it is brought
in from the street levels. Some higher standard ought to be fixed as
the minimum space allotted to each worker in these underground rooms,
the cubic air space now allowed by the Factory and Workshop Act,
1901, being altogether inadequate in such places.
" Your sanitary staff is somewhat hampered in ifs efforts to
ameliorate this state of things, because it has often happened during the
past year that architects, surveyors, owners of workshops and other
ratepayers call at the Inspector.s Office for information and hints
respecting any notices requiring ventilation to a workshop, etc., and.on
entering the Sanitary Offices find them to be worse off in these respects
than the premises occupied by the workers the Sanitary Inspector seeks
to benefit."
Outworkers.—Notices were published in the newspapers calling the
attention of persons in trades specified in the Home Secretary.s Order
that a copy of a list of outworkers employed by them must be sent to
the City Council twice a year, but although a considerable number of
names have been received from employers and from other Borough
Councils there must be many more whose names have not been sent in.
The keeping of the Register of Outworkers entails a good deal of work,
as, where the place of employment or home of an outworker is in
another district, the Council of that district must be so informed. Outworkers
are constantly changing their addresses and their employer, so