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11
SANITARY WORK OF THE TEAR.
Table III.—The first portion of this Table shows the work of inspection
carried out by the Inspectors during the year, and the second portion
contains a statement of the various improvements effected under their
superintendence.
With the consent of the Sanitary Committee, Carbolic Acid was again
used every Saturday during the hottest part of the summer, in connexion
with the watering of some of the streets in the closer neighbourhoods, and
McDougall's Powder was once a week freely thrown about many of the
courts, and also on the yards and into the dust-bins of a considerable number
of the smaller houses, where such a course was most likely to prove
beneficial. The Committee also gave authority for the road-side and
channel of a portion of the Essex Road, and of two portions of the
Caledonian Road to be cleansed and deodorized, and the refuse carted away
after the Saturday night market, and this proceeding gave much satisfaction
to the inhabitants. In the previous summer the Essex Road portion only
was done.
The thorough disinfection of infected premises as directed by the
Sanitary Committee on the 6th of February, 1871, was continued throughout
the year, in all cases of Small Pox, and subsequently in cases of Scarlet
Fever, which came under our notice, and wherever else it was deemed to be
necessary under the 22nd Section of the Sanitary Act, 1866.
The mode of procedure in this respect is fully described in my predecessor's
last annual Report, and has been on the whole very successful; in
case of default by the owner, the work can be carried out by the Nuisance
Authority, the expense incurred being recoverable from the owner in a
summary manner. This step has not been so necessary now for some time,
for where the owners fail to comply with the notice, a further intimation by
letter of our purpose to disinfect, and to charge them with the expense, is
almost invariably quite sufficient to cause it to be done. In the pressure
however, arising from the great amount of work which was thrown upon
the Inspectors during the most severe portion of the Small Pox epidemio,
the Committee expended the sum of £108. 19s. 3d., on account of defaulting
owners between the 6th of February and the 2nd of August, 1871.
Of this amount, £77. 15s. 3d. was received on one or two applications boing
made, and 16 summonses were issued for the recovery of the balanco of £31.4s.