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recommended, "that in future the reports of the District Surveyors
be referred, when received, to the Works, Sanitary, and General
Purposes Committee, with a view to inquiry by the Sanitary Inspectors,
and to such action by the Vestry as the circumstances of
each case may seem to warrant." The reports received in
January, 1887, were referred as directed. Inquiry was made by
the several Sanitary Inspectors with respect to the underground
rooms mentioned, and I reported on the subject in my sixth
monthly report (June 20, 1887, page 51) as follows:—
"The reports of the District Surveyors treat of the circumstances of
the several underground rooms as they relate, on the one hand, to structural
condition or defects; and, on the other hand, to removable sanitary
defects. The first named, or structural defects, are beyond the power of
the Sanitary Inspectors to remedy, and these officers can only submit
needless confirmation of the accuracy of the reports of the District
Surveyors as to facts:—such as that a room is not one foot above the
surface of the footway; that the area is not six inches below the floor of
the room, nor effectively drained; that there is no proper area, and so
on It is for the Vestry to determine whether any steps should
be taken to prevent the use of such 'underground' rooms for the purpose
of human habitation.''
With regard to removeable sanitary defects, such as that the
trapping of the area drain was insufficient, or that the dustbin was
without a cover, I reported. that the necessary proceedings were
being taken for remedying the said defects.
No other action was taken with respect to subsequent
half-yearly reports received prior to January of the current year.
But in March, 1890, the London County Council requested your
Vestry's attention to certain "underground" rooms "occupied as
dwellings, contrary to law," on which I specially reported (25th
March). Nearly all of the houses referred to had been built prior to
August, 1855, so that most of the rooms were not "underground"
rooms within the meaning of the Act;" a distinction being made
between rooms occupied separately as dwellings at or before the
time of the passing of the Act, and rooms not so let or occupied
at or before the passing of the Act." After shewing "in what