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(7) Food Inspection.—The usual food inspection has been carried on at
the wharves and in the shops and markets of the Borough. In addition to
these, inspections at Bishopsgate Goods Station of foodstuffs arriving from
the Continent by the Zeebrugge-Hanyich train ferry, which began in 1924,
continued in 1925, and necessitated more inspections than in 1924. The food
included meat and fruit from Belgium, poultry, eggs, fruit and vegetables
from Italy. The total weight of meat imported through this channel in 1925,
which consisted chiefly of calves and calves' offal, was 1,225 tons. The
inspection of meat was carried out at first by two meat inspectors alternately,
and that of fruit by a rota of district sanitary inspectors. In view of the
increasing amount of foodstuffs arriving, the Council decided in July, 1925,
that one Inspector should be detailed for this work, and that a temporary
sanitary inspector should be appointed to take over his district when he was
so engaged. This arrangement proved satisfactory.
A great deal of diseased meat was discovered and condemned. The
attention of the Belgian Authorities was directed to the importation of
diseased meat into this country on six different occasions during 1925 and
they were asked to arrange for the proper inspection of meat before it was
exported. It is much easier to detect diseased meat at the time of slaughter
than it is at Bishopsgate Station when carcases have to be examined without
the offal and during the early hours of the morning. The Ministry of Health
was also informed of this want of inspection with regard to meat from
Belgium. At the end of 1925 these protests had no effect and the method of
examination or rather the want of inspection, was still unsatisfactory.
About a ton a day of unsound food of all kinds was dealt with during
the year. This quantity is less than in previous years.
On an average, a ton and a-half a day has been condemned as unsound
during the last five years. It was not all destroyed, as the unsound tinned
meat is used for extraction for commercial purposes, and unsound condensed
milk is sold for pig and poultry feeding.
(8) Housing.—The housing question is as acute as ever. Several hundreds
of applications have been received for houses or flats Many families
have been accommodated at Becontree, but the bulk of them still remain on the
waiting list. It is unfortunate that many people convert a portion of their
private dwelling houses into workshops. This generally begins by a conversion
of the bedrooms on the top floor, and this displaces, possibly, a family
which could utilise them for living. To our knowledge, there are workshops
in 760 houses in the Borough in which this arrangement has taken place within