View report page

27
assistant inspector, but the comparatively few cases of infectious
disease combined with less trouble generally in
obtaining compliance with notices, allowed more time for
Housing Inspection, which is the most important part ol
the inspectors' work.
Over 4,000 cottages in some 80 streets are on the
Working Schedule for housing inspection duties, and on this
schedule is indicated when the last inspection was made.
From time to time streets of houses are selected for attention,
care being taken to choose property which is most
likely to require inspection, to give various parts of the district
attention, and to note when the street was last inspected.
A great many more inspections might be recorded by
visiting houses built within the last twenty years, but these
are usually omitted, unless complaint has been made or an
infectious disease notified.
As a result of the above method of selection of houses
for routine inspection, the proportion of defects found to
the number of houses inspected is consequently high, an
inspection card being rarely marked "no defect." This,
coupled with the facts that in this district householders
seldom complain without cause, and that quite 95 per cent,
of defects are remedied, gives support to the view that it is
not the number of inspections that matters, but the results
obtained. These are shown in Table (c).
The staff was able to get the whole of the repairs, etc.,
carried out without resorting to legal proceedings, though
in many cases not until after service of preliminary, statutory
and final notices. Only in a few instances did property
owners raise any question about the necessity or reasonableness
of the works required by notices, and all notices were