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86
I think it well to make some passing remarks on one or two
matters not mentioned specifically, and on improvements effected.
All possible care has been taken to prevent discrepancies as to the
numbers of visits shown in the tabulated statement as there are a
great many things done which cannot well come under any definite
heading, all of which take time, and come under the supervision of
the department.
The gradual displacement of the old seat and riser to w.c.'s,
doing away with the grave nuisances that were continually occurring
through defective joints between the basin and trap and causing
soakage into walls and under floors, and substituting fixed seats on
bearers with open fronts or lift-up seats with pedestal w.c.'s and
rendering the floors and walls in Portland cement is a great
improvement, and I hope in time the old conditions will have
entirely disappeared.
One other nuisance met with continually in this district is the
tendency of many persons to endeavour to keep chickens, rabbits,
pigeons, dogs, etc., close up to the back doors of their houses. In
the cases where chickens are kept it is generally understood that
the chicken run is the receptacle for all refuse. In some instances
where the occupiers' attention has been called by your inspectors to
the seriousness of such nuisance, they have at once removed them
further from the premises. Each case is, however, dealt with on
its merits. Many improvements and additions are necessary in the
powers of the sanitary authority to deal with the keeping of animals
about dwelling-houses. I should certainly like to see a bye-iaw for
preventing the keeping of animals, except in yards of a sufficiently
open character, and under regulated conditions as to structures and
distances from dwellings. This is, I consider, a question connected
with sanitary progress upon which a great number of the public
require enlightenment.
The number of visits shown in the tabulated statement include
inspections of the following :—