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47
permit me to point out some of the increased duties devolving
upon Sanitary Authorities by recent legislation—the carrying out
of the Bye-laws made by the London County Council, and those
by the Vestry under the Public Health (London) Act, the Notification
and Prevention of Diseases Act (now incorporated in the
Public Health Act), the Workshops and Factory Acts, Housing
of the Working Classes Act, Canal Boats Act, Food and Drugs
Act, and the Margarine Act, all of which involves a large
amount of detail work not required by the Sanitary and Nuisance
Removal Acts of former days.
When the subject of the necessary Staff required to carry out
the Public Health Act was under the consideration of the Special
Committee appointed to report on the matter in 1892, I recommended
that a third Inspector should be appointed, even if temporarily,
to bring the work to the requirements, but the Committee
then thought the necessity might be obviated by an
alteration of the duties of the Staff. Since that time the duties
have gone on increasing and the work has never been overtaken.
The matter has been urged upon the attention of the Vestry
by the London County Council from time to time since the foregoing,
the last occasion being October, 1896, when it was decided
to inform the Council that the Vestry were of opinion that the
"Sanitary Staff is sufficient and compares favourably with other
districts of like circumstances."
The subject of the required increased accommodation at the
Mortuary has also been under the consideration of the Public
Health Committee on several occasions, the last time being in
1892. I then suggested that the matter might be met by conversion
of the small apartment, known as the waiting room for
females, into a Post-Mortem Room, and the present Post-Mortem
Room being used as a general Mortuary, the old Mortuary at the
extreme end of the premises being divided into two apartments,
the inner one to be used for depositing bodies of persons dying of
infectious disease, and the outer one as a store for shells,
implements, &c.
This scheme was reported upon by the Surveyor and rejected
by the Committee on the ground of expense.
There is only one other matter dealt with in the Report which
requires consideration, namely, property in the parish which it
would be desirable for the Vestry to deal with under the Housing
of the Working Classes Act. Of the first of these mentioned a
representation was made by me to the Vestry in 1892 upon which