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14
While it is true that the incidence of cases of food poisoning seems to
be increasing throughout the country, it must be remembered that
through notifications and the services of bacteriologists, cases of all
degrees of illness come to light many of which ten years or so ago would
have passed unnoticed.
I wish to thank my present Chairman, C. R. Purnell, Esq., and
Vice-Chairman, Lt. Col. Norman Edwards, for their support and kind
understanding and to express in retrospect appreciation of the consideration
shown me by the Chairmen and members of the Council with whom
I have worked during the past twenty-five years. During that period,
there have been changes in the staff but the sense of service to the Council
has never been higher in spite of the difficulties of the times in which we
live.
In concluding the foreword, I feel it would be of interest to append
the following note prepared by Mr. H. E. White, the Chief Sanitary
Inspector. It indicates some contrasts in the sanitary conditions of
fifty years ago with those of today.
1900—1950.
Public Health Services.
During the past 50 years the methods employed by public health
officers to safeguard the public health have not varied greatly but have
increased vastly in scope and complexity. For example, in 1900 the
inspection of dwelling houses and the remedying of defective conditions
was a feature of the work, and there were very few notices served which
did not include some reference to the presence of a degree of dirty and
other conditions of nuisance rarely experienced today.
Housing inspection in 1950 remains an important duty and the
standard of good habitable conditions has been steadily improved by the
introduction of some legislative codes dealing with the subject. Local
Authorities have been given opportunities of abolishing slums by means
of clearance and closure of unfit houses. The advent of two major wars
in the period, however, has unfortunately been the cause of serious breaks
in continuity. Cellar dwellings was a term often used in 1900 and efforts
, were constantly being made to prevent their occupation as bedrooms.
Today the City Council continue to make closing orders in regard to
basements which do not comply with statutory requirements but such
rooms bear little resemblance to the old cellar dwellings of the past
situated under shops with little or no light or ventilation and serving as
accommodition for large families of young children. In the northern
part of the City many still remain but are used only for storage purposes
and it requires little imagination to visualize the menace such dwellings
presented to the health of their occupants 50 years ago.
In 1900 there were 16 Common Lodging Houses including three for
women only and one for women and married couples. They provided
lodging of a very poor order viewed by the standards of the three lodging
houses which exist today. All those sixteen have disappeared. From
the nature of their inmates, many of whom were vagrants, the spread of