View report page

8
An Account of action taken or advised under the several Acts of
Parliament and your Bye-laws affecting the Health of the District.
During the year 167 inspections have been made by me either in company
with the Sanitary Inspector or alone.
As a result of these inspections, 45 certificates were written by me certifying,
under the Housing of the Working Classes Act, that this number of houses,
situated in different parts of the district, was unfit for human habitation. In
all these cases, after consideration, your Authority directed the Clerk to take
necessary steps to have the houses made fit for human habitation. In most cases
owners complied with the statutory notice. In six cases action was taken by
your Clerk before the Magistrates at Highgate, and after some delay the orders
made by the Magistrates were carried out. At a later stage of my report, I
shall again refer to this subject. The increased number of these certificates show
that your Authority is determined to remedy sanitary defects of houses, and
that when every other means has failed to persuade owners of property to put
their houses in good sanitary state, your Council resorts to the extreme measure
of taking legal action.
A certificate was written by me, under Section 70 of the Public Health Act,
1875, declaring that a sample of water obtained from a well in the North Ward
was polluted with sewage matter, and unfit for drinking purpose. Your
Authority took the necessary steps to close the well and substitute the Barnet
Company's water for the shallow well water. Four certificates were written
under Section 46 of the Public Health Act, 1875, requiring houses to be cleansed
and whitewashed.
Laundries.
Five Laundries were inspected during the year; they were found to be in
a fair sanitary state. There are several houses in the district where washing
is taken in. These houses have small convenience for washing and drying linen,
consequently some injury to health is caused to inmates of the house by reason
of the steam from boiler and dampness from clothes drying. Sooner or later
bye-laws should be framed for regulating these small laundries, or your Authority
might take into consideration the question of adoption of the "Baths and Washhouses
Acts," and the building of suitable wash-houses.
Schools.
Inspection of the National Schools in the district have been made at regular
intervals of three months, and at other times when necessary. An excellent
new School, well lighted and well ventilated, has been built from plans approved
by the Education Department. These Schools have taken the place of old
buildings in Oakleigh Road, South Ward.
In the Central Ward also some modern-built Schools, capable of enlargement
as the necessity of the district requires it, are in good sanitary state. The
same applies to the North Ward. In the district south of the Asylum the
Schools are not of such recent construction as those in other parts of the district.
The sanitary arrangements are satisfactory. As the cleanliness and good order
of the water-closets and urinals depend so much on the caretaker, it is important
that a capablc person should be employed to undertake this work.
Dairies, Milkshops, and Cowsheds.
Seven premises registered under the above heading have been inspected four
times during the year.