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OVERCROWDING, &c.
One portion of sanitary work has engaged my attention
for a lengthened period, and has received more earnest
attention since the passing of the Artisans' and Labourers'
Dwellings Acts, 1875. I refer to overcrowding, and the
habitual unsanitary condition of the houses of the lowest
classes of the population. It will be remembered that after
long deliberation and enquiry I advised the Vestry that in my
opinion it was not then expedient to apply that Statute to
any area within the Parish ; and this conclusion has not been
challenged. At the same time I stated that there was one
street (Derry Street) as to which it might be speedily advisable
to review my opinion. One side of Derry Street, and the
adjacent Prospect Terrace, are very dilapidated, and on each
successive occasion of cleansing and repairing the structural
condition of the houses is found to be worse than before. No
long time must elapse before the houses in the Street and
Terrace will have to be demolished, but at present I am in
this difficulty, that the area is too small to bo dealt with
under the Act of 1875, and the Artisans' and Labourers'
Dwellings Aot, 18C8, is, as the oostly experience of other
Sanitary Authorities teaches us, almost inoperative. The
highly penal nature of this latter statute, which, in the event of
demolition, gives no compensation to the owner whose property
is destroyed, makes Courts of Justice, extend every
possible leniency to the owner. Moreover, the Act does not
contemplate any scheme for the reconstruction of the
houses demolished, or other provision for the population
displaced. The knowledge of these defects in the Act of
1868 renders me loth to apply it so long as other expedient
can be resorted to for keeping houses in anything like a
habitable condition.
The state of the houses included within the area embraced
by the Midland Railway Improvements Acts is year by year
becoming worse. Had it not been for the fact that this
property is dealt with by local and special enactments, I
should long ago have reported the area under the Artisans'
and Labourers' Dwellings Act, 1875. As the houses in this
area get into a more and more unsanitary and dilapidated
state they are shut up, and the displaced population