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Annual Report on the Health and Sanitary
Condition of the City of Westminster.
1921.
Mr. Mayor, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Annual Report for the year 1921.
It includes Returns required by the Ministry of Health and Home
Office.'
Details of the various activities of the Public Health Department
having been given in the 1920 Report, it is not necessary to do more
than record any changes which have taken place in 1921.
The need for economy in expenditure has, and no doubt will, for
some time prevent development on new lines, but it is recognised that
it is not a wise policy to curtail existing activities which have for their
aim the improvement of health and the prevention of illness.
It has been difficult to obtain the abatement of nuisances, and to
secure the keeping of houses of the tenement class in a decent state of
repair, in consequence of the decline ip the incomes of the owners and
the high cost of labour. Owing to the same causes the amount of
rebuilding and reconstruction has been much less than the average.
The year 1921 was an unusual year as regards the weather—it
established a record, in the increased amount of sunshine which began
early and continued until late in the year, and in the reduction in
rainfall which was only about half the normal.
The death rate for AVestminster was slightly higher than in the
preceding year, but for the country in general it was the lowest on
record. While the weathor conditions were on the whole beneficial to
the public health, yet in some directions the reverse was the case, as in
the occurrence of diarrhoea and septic throats in the autumn, and
possibly in the increased prevalence of scarlet fever and diphtheria.
(4573) A 2