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49
(4) The early isolation and removal of infectious cases.
(5) The definition and detection of overcrowding and indecent
occupation.
It is well known that overcrowding takes place mostly at night
and can only be discovered by domiciliary visits. I think it is the
power given by the regulations to make such visits that has raised
such a storm of opposition against them. But it is only by means
of occasional night visits that overcrowding and indecent occupation
can be detected. Such detection can in no way be considered a
remedy for the evil conditions found, as the final arbiter in any
proceedings for the prohibition of, or punishment for, continued
offence in this direction, is the sitting Magistrate at the Police
Court, and our experience is that, unless it can be conclusively
shewn that a man with a large family occupying two small rooms
can find and pay for additional;accommodation, the Magistrate will
refuse to order him to do so.
To find a remedy for overcrowding is a very big order, and
Tenement House regulations, though good so far as they go, do not
touch the fringe of the subject. Improvident early marriages and
intemperance are a fruitful source of the evil; and until the British
workman can be taught to keep out of the Public house and to curb
his sexual appetite the only remedies I know against overcrowding
are a general cheapening of rents, or an universal raising of wages,
neither of which is at all likely to happen.
But the overcrowding clauses of the regulations are not the only
ones or even the most useful ones. It does not follow that because
the Vestry puts the regulations in force that the officers are bound
to carry them out to the bitter end. They must be worked with
care, common sense and discretion, especially when invading the
sanctity of home life by night visits. We are not obliged to
prosecute at the police court. We have not yet found it necessary
to proceed under the other bye-laws made either by the Vestry or
by the Council; the fact that bye-laws exist and can be enforced if
necessary is found to be sufficient; and I am sure that, if we are
permitted to use them, we shall be able to work the lodging house
regulations in the same spirit,
D