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In one instance, a local branch of the Post Office, where a
number of clerks were in daily attendance, it was found that
there was only one convenience for thirty persons, including
both sexes; in another, a public building, attended by hundreds
of persons daily, some of whom may have to wait several hours
at a time, is not provided with retiring accommodation for
females, so that the sanitary conveniences for men have to be
resorted to by women; and in a third instance, it is known
that cases of scarlet fever, which occur in a large institution,
are not notified to the Sanitary Authority, and there is strong
evidence that the disease has been conveyed beyond the
infected building.
The Vestry are of opinion that the inconvenience and danger
in such cases as these are not limited to the occupants of the
property of the Government, but directly affect the health of
the public at large. The Vestry are also of opinion that much
might be done to minimise such inconvenience and danger,
without impairing the exemption secured to Government
property, by a co-operation between the Executive Departments
and the Sanitary Authorities. They have, therefore,
addressed a communication to the Local Government Board
and Her Majesty's Office of Works, calling attention to the;
necessity, in the interests of the public health, for access being
afforded to the sanitary officers of the Local Authorities to
barracks, post offices, military hospitals, factories, and other
Government Institutions, as well in reference to cases of
dangerous infectious disease, as to water supply, drainage,
w.c. accommodation and sanitary conditions generally, with
the object of obtaining a systematic co-operation between the
Departments having control of the Government buildings and
the Sanitary Authorities.
Nearly the whole of the replies received from other Local
Authorities in London concurred in the views of the Vestry.
Closing of Public Elementary Schools.
A Memorandum was issued during July, 1897, by the Medical
Officer of the Local Government Board, "on the circumstances
under which the closing of public elementary schools or the
exclusion therefrom of particular children may be required in
order to prevent the spread of disease."
Section 1 states the objects of the Memorandum as to which
are the best means of preventing the spread of disease by
school children among their fellows while avoiding any unnecessary
interruption of the work of education.