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81
house in order, and for this reason a very high standard of municipal
cleanliness should be aimed at in every part of a working class
community. The effect of such a system would be, not only to save
work in the household by lessening the amount of street dust and
refuse dust that gains access to it, but by force of example would
tend to raise the standard of household and personal cleanliness
throughout the district.
We have already seen what appears to be the good effect an
attempt in this direction has had in lessening the mortality from
diarrhoea in the area that was specially treated this summer, and I
feel sure that if applied generally, such a system might claim even
greater results than the checking of this disease
The proper scavagery and watering of macadamised streets and
roads are difficult and costly. There would be much lessening of
expense and better results would be achieved if the surface with
which we had to deal were of a more impervious and less pulverable
nature. Various kinds of tar macadam are now being used in other
districts for road making, with encouraging results. Their cost is,
I believe, not much greater than ordinary macadam and the labour
and expense involved in their cleansing and up-keep are considerably
less.
Milk Supply. Little can be done in controlling the milk
supply till powers are obtained by local authorities giving them a
right to inspect and regulate the sources of supply outside their own
district. There is no doubt that, in course of time, the public will
come to ask for the same degree of purity in the milk supply that it
has learnt to demand in that of the water supply, and such an event
is much to be desired.
The question of establishing a municipal supply of milk for infant
feeding, naturally suggests itself in a report of this kind. The idea
has had many advocates, and there are several depots of the sort in
existence in this country at the present moment.