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31
However, attempt will be made to carry out the
requirements of these numerous Acts upon a system which
will have for its object the specialising in each branch of the
work at regular intervals. If the investigations of general
sanitary conditions, which are of an urgent character, allow
of such a system to be attained, no doubt it will be productive
of a higher standard of sanitation.
It is with pleasure I have to record that the policy of the
Council during the past year has been one of progress in all
matters relating to public health, although certain of the
schemes embarked upon in the previous year for the improvement
of the health of the District are as yet only in a
transitional stage.
While the coming year will no doubt see the consummation
of some of them, in matters of Housing this work will
necessarily be carried out in instalments according to the
requirements of the district, and will possibly be spread over
the next five years. Progress in this direction is set out in
detail in the portion of the report dealing with Housing
matters.
Publication of the Medical and Sanitary Reports giving
details of Public Health conditions and activity in a District is
becoming yearly more important and necessary, for the
following reasons:—Firstly, they are required by an Order of
Local Government Board which has the effect of a statutory
enactment. They enable the Board to gauge the general
health conditions of the country, and so bring defaulting
authorities who are a menace to surrounding Districts into
line, and to co-ordinate the work.
Secondly, they have an educational value to the public,
while the exchange of reports between officers in similar
districts enables experiences to be compared ; and thirdly, the
officers' duties being prescribed by the Local Government
Board, it follows that many of them are performed upon the
officers' own initiative and not at the instigation of the
Council, and lying as they do with the individual rather than
with the Council, it is imposible and in some cases undesirable
to report in detail upon many subjects at the time, as
this would entail undeserved hardship in certain cases,
therefore, a great deal of discretion must perforce be left in
the hands of the Public Health officials. This being the case,
the annual report preserves a record of the year's achievements,
and brings to the knowledge of the Council in a more
intimate manner than is otherwise possible, the wide range