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carried into effect. At any moment these houses may become
a danger not only to those who inhabit them, but to others
who may be exposed to disease having its origin within
them.
As the Vestry are aware, a Royal Commission is now
making enquiry into the means which may be adopted for
improving the dwellings of the poorer classes. I would wish
to see, as a result of this Commission, the opportunity given
for proceedings being instituted against those freeholders who
neglect to enforce the repairing clauses of leases. If in
default of the immediate owner maintaining his houses in
proper condition, he could be made to forfeit his interest in
them, houses that are occupied by the very poor would not
continue to be owned by those who are unwilling or unable
to maintain them in a proper habitable condition.
During the year the Vestry thought it well to call the attention
of all householders to the opportunities which they themselves
possessed for protecting their households against disease,
and a card containing precautions against disease prepared by
your Vestry Clerk and Medical Officer was issued to every
householder.
Moreover, a step was taken by the Vestry which is a
cause for much congratulation at a time when there is urgent
need for the preservation of purity of water supply. The
opportunity which is given for the pollution of water by
the method of storing it in water.butts and cisterns
has been referred to in past reports. The course the Vestry
have taken in addressing the Local Government Board on
this subject, will eventually procure for St. Pancras a
constant water service, and will remove in the future the
chances of local contamination.
Again, the need for preserving the sources of water supply
from pollution has not been lost sight of The sources of
supply to St. Pancras and other parts of the Metropolis are
not under the control of the Metropolitan Sanitary Authorities,
but at a Conference which was held between Dr. Buchanan,
the Medical Officer to the Local Government Board, and
the Metropolitan Medical Officers of Health, in reference to
the means which should be taken to prevent the dissemination
of cholera in London, the opportunity was given me of
calling the attention of the meeting to the need for