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10
As to Sketches of Sanitary Appliances most suitable for use in your
District.
After consultation with your Surveyor, I brought to your notice the
desirability of printing sketches of approved sanitary appliances for use by
builders in the district. I consider this a good way of giving assistance to
builders, and making provision of something like a uniformity of sanitary
appliances of the best kind.
As to Bye-laws with respect to Houses Let in Lodgiugs.
I had occasion to bring to your notice that although the bye-laws relating
to houses let in lodgings formed a part of your general bye-laws, they had not
been put in force. I consider among the smaller house property occupied by
members of more than one family, these bye-laws would be a means by which
cleanliness would be promoted and overcrowding prevented. Registration would
effectually teach landlords to recognise the responsibility of house property, and
occupiers that cleanliness forms a part of the ordinary daily duties. Under the
bye-laws, the landlord is required to cause every part of the premises to be
cleansed and the interior to be limewashed, except where impossible, once in
every year. There need to be no friction in bringing these bye-laws into action.
The class of house is provided for in the bye-laws. I would mention the
following roads where, if these bve-laws were put into action, an improvement
in the health of the inhabitants might be expected:—Oakleigh Road, Avenue,
Holly Park Road, Alexandra Road, Cromwell Road, and Sydney Road.
An Account of Sanitary state of District at the end of the Year.
Scavenging and Removal of Dust.
These duties have been carried out in a satisfactory manner during the year.
Your Authority considered the matter of dust collection, and after careful
investigation found that a collection once in three weeks seemed to meet the
requirements of the district at present. In your district (a semi-rural district)
dust and house refuse is collected from about two-thirds of the number of
inhabited houses. One-third use the ashes for garden purposes. A frequent
removal of house refuse from houses has many times proved of immense
advantage to the public health.
The dust-bins throughout the district are chiefly galvanized iron moveable
bins. The fixed bins are gradually being discontinued. Your Authority has
wisely provided a tarpaulin cover for the dust-carts, so that no effluvia from
the dust shall give cause for complaint.
Pollution of Watercourse.
During the year a nuisance was caused by the overflow of cesspools from
Clerkenwell detached district passing into a ditch in your district. The
recurrent nuisance is dangerous to health. Your Council is in negotiation with
Clerkenwell to take the sewage of this portion of the district, and this matter
has been under your consideration.
A further nuisance from a polluted ditch was brought before you. The
nuisance was caused by an overflow from a manhole in an adjoining district
emptying into a water-course. The sewer became olocked, and overflowed by
the outlet into stream. The Surveyor of the district promised that the overflow
should be stopped up, and the nuisance prevented from recurring. The
Sanitary Inspectors attention was drawn to the possibility of pollution of the
ditch from the overflow of a cesspool in a house in your district.