View report page

MEDICAL OFFICER'S ANNUAL REPORT SHEET 9 OF DRAFT.
Legislation in Force.
The year under review has seen some important legislation placed
upon the statute hook the most important being the consolidated Housing
Act and the Public Health Acts Amendment Act. The Clerk of the Council
has fully reported upon these Acts and no useful purpose can be served
by a detailed review of them.
I shall however refer to them under the appropriate headings
when dealing with the housing conditions of the District.
The Byelaws respecting Slaughterhouses have been revised and
the use of the mechanically operated killing instrument will become
compulsory early in 1926. Up to the present the effect of this
byelaw has been to stop slaughtering in this area and the local
butchers now slaughter in a neighbouring district where the byelaw
is not in force, this has made the work of meat inspection somewhat
more difficult as your Inspector is deprived of the opportunity of
inspecting the organs and offals which but for the operation of the
byelaw he would have had an opportunity of properly examining, judgement
of the home killed meat exposed for sale in this district is thus
confined to the carcase alone AFTER IT IS EXPOSED FOR SALE. The result
of the byelaw has therefore been to impose a risk on the public that
did not otherwise exist and no benefits have been bestowed upon the
animals destined for human food as they are still stunned by poleaxe
and mallet, the remedy is to make the byelaw universal, and applicable
to all districts.
SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE AREA.
WATER SUPPLY.
The water supply is from the chalk, the district being part of
the area of supply of the Barnet District Gas & water Company.
There is no service reservoir in this district the nearest pumping
station being at the wells in the adjoining district of East Barnet
Valley about 600 yards from our eastern boundary.
Like all London water it is of considerable hardness varying in
the different wells from 22 to 26 degrees on Clarkes Scale, this would
be equal to about 17 grains of chalk per gallon of water.
Much of this hardness is of a temporary character and is lost on
boiling. The water is of great purity and pleasant to drink.
So far as is known the hardness has no deleterious effect and
those who use it are free from the risk of lead poisoning which is
very real in those districts where a soft moorland or lake water is
supplied.