View report page

28
and the necessity for disinfection after infectious diseases, and also the
inspection of bakehouses under the Bakehouse Regulation Act, 1864,
essential parts of the Sanitary work, greatly extended the Inspectors'
duties, and these being still further increased by the Sale of Food and
Drugs Acts.
Between 1856 and 1867 additional Inspectors were employed on
several occasions, e.g., during the Cattle Plague of 1865. From 1867
to 1884, however, no additional assistance was received in the work of
inspection, either temporary or otherwise.
In 1871, when the population was 213,000, and the number of
inhabited houses was 27,000, the work of the Department was again
farther increased by the transfer of the control of the Dusting of the
Parish from the Vestry Clerk's office and his immediate supervision to
the Sanitary Department. The Inspector of Dust, who was then also
an Inspector of Lamps, having resigned, a special Inspector of Dust
was appointed in connection with your Department, where complaints
have ever since been inquired into, recorded, and tabulated, a junior
clerk being also appointed to assist in the office.
The Resolution of the Vestry was as follows:—
"Resolved,—That the Dust Inspector and the Superintendence
of the Dust contract be transferred from the Vestry
Clerk's Department to that of the Sanitary." Gamed unanimously.
(3rd February, 1871.)
Except in the purchasing of samples under the Sale of Food and
Drugs Act, and, in cases of emergency, the time of the Inspector of
Dust has been fully occupied with his special work in the Dusting of
the Parish, and invisiting and re-visiting the houses in the poorer
localities of the District.
Upon the question of the Staff, it is right to remind the Committee
that for many years messengers were sent daily to the Vestry
by the Trustees and Guardians of the Poor, the Sanitary Department
usually having three or more at their disposal. Upon their withdrawal,
under an Order from the Local Government Board, the appointment
of a lad messenger was authorised by the Vestry in December,