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31
FACTORY AND WORKSHOP ACT, 1901.
In this district there are 188 factories, 171 workshops, and 58
workplaces, to which the following numbers of visits were paid
during the year: factories, 351; workshops, 234 ; workplaces, 126.
Of the 48 public health nuisances detected, 16 were due to
want of cleanliness. There were 13 instances of unsatisfactory
sanitary accommodation, these being unsuitable or defective in
nine cases and insufficient in four. 19 other nuisances were
detected.
54 notices from other Councils and one from an employer
were received containing the addresses of 78 outworkers. Of the
local outworkers, 72 were engaged in the making of wearing apparel,
11 in leatherwork, one in brushmaking, one in the making of
artificial flowers and one in box-making. 81 visits of inspection
were made to outworkers' premises, in none of which were unwholesome
conditions found to exist.
ERADICATION OF BED BUGS.
During the year twelve council houses and forty-two other
dwellings were found to be infested with vermin, while of the total
of 107 houses included in clearance areas in regard to which Orders
have been confirmed, twenty-nine were found to be verminous.
The council houses were treated with vermicine spray. Mild
infestations of other houses were similarly dealt with, but premises
more severely affected were treated by outside contractors, the cost
of the work being borne either by the owners or the occupiers.
Eight houses in clearance areas were dealt with, making a total of
fifty private houses and twelve council houses disinfested. A
limited amount of disinfestation was carried out by members of
the Council's staff trained in the use of heavy naphtha.
Before removal of tenants from infested houses to council
houses, the houses and the household effects are fumigated, or the
household effects sprayed. After removal periodic visits are paid
to the homes of those transferred to council houses from condemned
properties to ascertain their freedom from infestation. Up to the
present it would appear that the methods of disinfestation have
proved successful.