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registration during the previous three years, but which had
not been registered because they were reduced to occupation
by one family, or overcrowding or dirty conditions were
remedied, or the conditions were not thought bad enough to
justify registration. I found that 43 of these houses were still
occupied by two or more families, 28 of these were in a dirty
condition, and overcrowding existed in 12. Such a result
shews conclusively that this class of houses requires to be
dealt with in a special way. 14 of the worst of these houses
were ordered by the Committee to be placed on the register.
I inspected also a large number of the houses on the register
and found their condition markedly superior to those referred
to above.
33. On the 16th March of the current year, your Council
approved of revised By-laws, which contained neither rent
limit, nor other exception, being applicable alike to all houses
occupied by more than one family without registration being a
necessary preliminary. It remains to see if the Local Government
Board will approve the By-laws in this form.
Owing to recent legal decisions other alterations have been
made by which the owner is made responsible for annual
cleansing and for providing means of light and ventilation,
and ensuring that he shall not be responsible until notice has
been served upon him. With these exceptions the person
responsible for carrying out the By-laws will be either the
lodger or the landlord, the landlord being the person who
sublets to the lodgers, and who is therefore in many cases a
resident of the house let in lodgings. Owners who let to one
tenant only are not, and will not be under the new By-laws,
responsible for overcrowding.