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46
them from growing up like their parents. Suitable clothing is of great
importance to proper healthy development. A child inadequately
clothed but fairly well fed is almost as badly off as one poorly fed but
adequately clothed ; and public philanthropy is almost as necessary
in order to procure suitable clothing for some of the poorer children
of to-day as it is for the feeding of them.
CLEANSING OF PERSONS ACT, 1897.
In the early part of the year, the Hackney Borough Council
agreed to afford facilities, on reasonable terms, for the cleansing and
purifying of the bodies and clothing of those persons infested with
vermin who are resident in the Borough of Stoke Newington.
I immediately sent notice of this fact to the Medical Men, the Clergy,
District Visitors, the School Attendance Officer, and others working
iu the Borough, and to the keeper of the Common Lodging-house.
It was pointed out in the communication that the Legislature has
recognised how impossible it is for the poorer inhabitants, with the scant
facilities at their disposal, to rid themselves of vermin; and that the
Cleansing of Persons Act enables sanitary authorities to provide the
necessary facilities free of charge to the applicant. It was further
stated that if it should come to the knowledge of those to whom the
communication was addressed that any person required to be freed
from vermin, a note from the Public Health Office would give such
person a free pass to the Baths and Disinfecting Station situated in
the lower part of Millfields Road, Lower Clapton.
The Cleansing of Persons Act, 1897, is a permissive Act. There
is no obligation on the local authority to make any such provision, and
in only three districts in London have the local authorities as yet
done so. These districts are St. Marylebone, St. Pancras and Hackney.
In the Borough of Stoke Newington there is certainly no necessity to
make any separate provision for verminous persons, and the existing
arrangement is eminently satisfactory from all considerations save one,
and that is that the extent to which such provision is likely to be used
must be largely determined by the accessibility of the cleansing
station. In that respect we are undoubtedly at a great disadvantage.