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Sanitary Conveniences.
Consideration has been given to the question of the free use of w.c.s in
the Council's public conveniences, and it was decided, for an experimental
period, that in one convenience at a time, no charge be made for the use of
the w.c.s. So far the experiment has proved satisfactory.
Rodent Control.
Under this heading your Senior Sanitary Inspector, as Officer-in-Charge,
Rodent Control, reported as follows: —
The Council have an Assistant Rodent Officer, two Rodent Operators,
the part-time services of a Clerk and appointed the District Sanitary Inspectors
as Rodent Officers.
During the year the treatment of business premises by " Warfarin " has
proved very successful.
The new method of rodent control has the advantage that the materials
are undetectable by rats and mice, therefore poison shyness does not occur,
and the rodents continue to feed until all are dead. Further, no prebaiting is
necessary and the baiting is continuous.
" Warfarin " destroys the ability of the blood to clot and the rats become
weaker and die painlessly from internal haemorrhage.
The District Sanitary Inspectors in cases where there was a possibility of
the infestation being due to defective drainage visited the premises and tested
the drainage and any defects discovered were dealt with through the usual
channels. In 80 per cent of the cases defects were discovered and as one can
quite appreciate entailed quite a large amount of work. The following table
gives details of the work carried out during the year.