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68
The year has been marked by a depression in trade, and the number of
premises under inspection shows a very small increase. The number of workshops
opened during the year is 57, those closed being 51, a net increase of
only 6, as against 44 for the preceding year. The tendency has been to
dismiss employes, and there have been very few cases of overcrowding.
Laundries continue to be the most troublesome class of premises visited, and
require constant attention. Those laundries which do not come under the
operation of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, i.e., in which less than
three persons dwelling elsewhere are employed, specially need inspection.
The premises are often dirty and dilapidated, and the work is carried on in the
living rooms; a condition of things highly undesirable in view of the
extremely dirty state of the clothes usually sent to this class of laundry.
At the beginning of the outbreak of small-pox in St. Pancras, I made a
special inspection of laundries and of workplaces where clothing is made.
The inspection of ladies' lavatories in railway stations and in refreshment
rooms has been added to the list of duties undertaken by the Woman Sanitary
Inspector during the past year.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
A. J. Safford,
Sanitary Inspector Workshops (Women).
6.—WATER SUPPLY AND WATER SERVICE.
The condition of the water supplied by the New River Company and the
West Middlesex Water Works was reported in the Monthly Reports as
extracted from the Report of the Analyst of the Local Government Board and
of the Chemists to the Water Companies.
Regulations of the Water Companies.—At the beginning of the year the
Water Companies deposited new Regulations to amend the Regulations made
in 1872, under the Metropolis Water Act of 1871. A Public Inquiry into
these proposed new Regulations was held by the Local Government Board in
February, at which your Borough Council was represented, and I duly attended
the Inquiry from day to day, and supplied evidence for Counsel.
On the 28th February, Counsel, on behalf of the Water Companies, made
the following statement:—
Mr. Cripps: "I have to make a statement, Sir, which I think I will make
at once for the convenience of all parties. These amended regulations were,
as explained, brought forward to carry out the duty imposed on the Companies
by the Act of 1871, to prevent the waste or abuse of water and its undue
consumption or contamination, in reference to which duty the Royal Commission
reported that the Companies had been remiss. As a matter of public
convenience it was thought better to have one code, which involved some
alterations in the existing regulations made in 1872. The proposed new
regulations related especially to improved fittings, which in the practice of
the New River Company had been found to work satisfactorily in the interests
both of the consumers and the Company. The question which has excited