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present conditions of moral overcrowding and sub-letting continue
in our large towns, they continue, not for the good of
the people, but for the fostering of infection, of tuberculosis,
of venereal disease, and of every other evil condition, due to
overcrowding, which saps the strength and wastes the youth
of the coming generation.
I would, however, like to refer to a more cheerful aspect of
the housing problem. If these houses were left to themselves,
without care and without supervision, they would in many cases
rapidly become slums. Throughout the year we have made
every endeavour to keep these houses in a state reasonably fit
for human habitation, and we have in the main succeeded.
More than a thousand notices were served in respect of house
property, and in all instances the work has been done which we
required to remedy the defects that were discovered.
During the past year closing orders were made and became
operative in four houses which were dangerous.
Some statistical details regarding housing and the work of
the Health Department in relation to insanitary conditions are
given in Tables D. and L.