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48
times inspected, and duly reported on, prior to the usual
applications being made for the renewal of licenses.
There was, I am pleased to state, no opposition offered to
such renewal in any case, since all the places visited were
found to be clean and in good order, as well as in possession
of all the sanitary requisites insisted on by the authorities.
The Acts of Parliament having reference to the adulteration
of food, &c., and to the regulation of the hours of
labour of women and children in factories and workshops,
received every attention it was found possible to give to
them, but both these measures confer such doubtful legal
powers upon the authorities as to render their active interference
in prosecuting offenders everywhere a very
questionable policy. In this Sub-district, happily, there
are not likely to occur many cases calling for such interference
in respect to the last-named Act. The other
measure named has been found to be quite inoperative, and
is now undergoing amendment at the hands of the legislature.
It only remains for me to reiterate an often expressed
opinion of the growing necessity there is for strenuous
efforts being made to remove or to mitigate some of the
many evils arising from the overcrowding of the dwellings
of the poor, as well as to secure for the district an improved
water supply.
Speaking more particularly of the water supply, it is
submitted that the question of its impurity is of far more
consequence than that of its deficient and irregular delivery.
Complaints were very general in this, as 1 believe they
were in all the Sub-districts during 1868, of the frequent
turbid condition of the water as it issued from the Company's
mains, giving rise to the belief that the filtering process
had often been entirely neglected.
The results of the analyses by Dr. Frankland of the
waters supplied by the Metropolitan Companies during
1868, have been published in the Registrar General's last