View report page

28
it may be repeated in localities where working class house accommodation
is required. These cottages are now all but completed. They are
commodious cottages, with a nice bit of garden ground and, I believe,
are to be let at a rental of five and threepence weekly. In my last
Annual Report, I mentioned that a private company was about to build
something like two hundred cottages at Dagenham, near the Railway
Station. Up to the present time about twelve have been erected, or are
in course of erection, but 1 am afraid that these houses are beyond the
means of the ordinary labourer. With regard to the sanitary condition
of existing working class dwellings, there is, as a rule, sufficiency of
open space about houses and cleanliness of surroundings. This latter
condition, and the sanitary condition of the dwellings generally, receive
the attention of the Sanitary Inspectors, who call in my aid in the case of
defects found, and these are reported to the Council, who direct (when
necessary) orders to be served on the owners to carry out the repairs, etc.
necessary to make the dwellings sanitary. The following represents the
action taken in carrying out the L.G.B. regulations respecting the
Housing, etc., Act:—
1.—No. of houses inspected 2,295
2.—No. of houses unfit for occupation 22
3.—No. of representations made to the Council for closing
orders 3
4.—No. of closing orders made 3
5.—No. of houses remedied without closing orders 56
6.—No. of houses remedied after closing orders were made —
3.—Water supply of the district.
The whole of the district is well supplied by the South Essex Water
Co., except in a few localities where, owing to their small population and
distance, the water mains do not exist. Particulars of these are given
under the several heads of localities in Part II. of this Report. Private
wells, many of which were found on analysis by me to give impure water,
have been in recent years for the most part abolished, and the Sanitary
Inspectors keep a vigilant eye on such as still exist, bringing me, from
time to time, samples of water for analysis when any suspicion exists of
the purity of the water. In such cases order is made by the Council for
the provision of the South Essex Co.'s water when practicable,
or for the cleansing of the well and removal of its source of pollution
when the other course is not practicable. The public supply is a constant
one.