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130
Repairs.
The necessary repairs to the dwellings are carried out by direct employment
of labour. The amount expended on this work in 1913-4 was £23,934. In 1920-21,
this expenditure had risen to £68,572, this increase being due to the higher wages,
to the heavy rise in the prices of materials, and to the necessity of overtaking the
arrears of painting and other work suspended during the war. During 1922-23
the expenditure on non-assisted schemes amounted to £44,398, and to £5,836 on
the assisted scheme. It will be seen that there was a substantial decrease in the
expenditure under this head during the year, this being attributable partly to the
fall in wages and the cost of materials. The work carried out included the external
painting of 26 blocks of tenements and 273 cottages, the internal painting of 297
cottages, the touching up and varnishing of the internal woodwork of 16 blocks of
tenements and 158 cottages, and the cleansing and distempering of 2,931 tenements,
including 21 of the Assisted Scheme and 1,866 cottages, including 631 on the
Assisted Scheme.
Outbreaks of
fire.
During the year 30 small outbreaks of fire occurred. Five of these occurred
at houses on the Assisted Scheme, and the cost of re-instatement was £8 10s. The
cost of re-instatement in the cases of the 25 other outbreaks was £37 5 s. 6d., and
was covered by the Council's Insurance Fund.
Vital
statistics.
The number of deaths of residents in the Council's dwellings, including lodginghouses,
during the year was 455. The health conditions on all the estates continue
to be highly satisfactory, the death-rate being uniformly lower than †hose of the
areas in which the respective estates are situated.
There were only 206 cases of infectious disease reported, 99 of these being cases of
scarlet fever, 74 cases of diphtheria, 22 cases of measles, 10 cases of chicken-pox and
a case of typhoid fever.
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