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78
gently carried out in this Borough. During 1905, 76 lists of outworkers
were received from employers, containing 308 names of
outworkers. The homes of all these were inspected, and 14
notices were served for defects found. The principal nuisances
discovered were dirty walls and ceilings, and dirty condition of
rooms.
Considerable difficulty is experienced in obtaining lists of outworkers.
There is no specified time during which these lists must
be sent in. The Act states that they must be sent in on or before
the 1st day of February and the 1st day of August, so that practically
anybody sending in a list every six months on any day
would comply with the Act. If, therefore, it was intended to
obtain a conviction for not sending in a list, it would probably be
necessary to wait until no list had been sent in for 12 months.
The rule of the Department is, in February and August, to write
and remind employers who have not sent in their lists, and in
this way lists are obtained in nearly all cases, but with considerable
clerical labour. As pointed out in the Home Office return,
the lists are frequently incorrect, and many visits are made to
addresses where no homework is being done. It is suggested in
the return that employers who do not send correct lists do not
comply with the Act and are liable to prosecution. I cannot see
that it would be reasonable to prosecute any employer for including
in his list somebody who had done work for him a month
or two before and might possibly do so again, though he was not
actually at the time doing such work.
No use has been made of provisions 3 and 4. The ordinary
procedure under the Public Health Act usually enables unwholesome
premises to be made sanitary in less than a month, and no
difficulty is found in obtaining the removal to hospital, or effectual
isolation, of cases of infectious disease. The difficulty is to insure
the detection and early notification of such diseases.
Miss Middlebrooke, who has visited the Homeworkers during
the past two years, reports that the homes of those workers are