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41
1919
The order of frequency of defects remedied by Statutory
Notices was as follows:—
1.—Rooms cleansed, (walls and ceilings).
2.—Roofs, rain water gutters, &c., and plastering, &c,
repaired.
3-—Drains unstopped, repaired and trapped.
4.—W.C's. repaired, supplied with water or otherwise repaired.
5.—Waste pipes, rain water pipes repaired, disconnected
or trapped.
6.—Dampness of walls or ceilings remedied.
* Further details as to the number of these defects will be
found in the tabie at the end of the report.
The chief difficulty in remedying the defects has been the
inability to obtain labour to carry out the repairs. This difficulty
is now being removed and repairs are being carried out
with less delay.
General housing conditions in the district—total number and number
for the working classes.
In a previous paragraph it was stated that the district is
partly industrial and partly residential. In view of the different
definitions of what constitutes the working classes, it is difficult
to estimate the number of houses occupied by the working classes.
under the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1903, the expression
"working class" includes mechanics, artisans, labourers and
others working for wages; hawkers, costermongers, persons not
working for wages, but working at some trade or handicraft employing
others, except members of their own family, and persons
other than domestic servants whose income in any case does not
exceed an average of thirty shillings a week, and the families of
any such persons who may be residing with them. The latter
part of the definition is clearly out of date, and when the Ministry
of Health was appealed to for a definition of the words suitable
for occupation by persons of the working classes, it was stated that
the term working classes may be taken generally to include any
persons who work for their living.