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13
Despite what I have written these Italian folk were much cleaner
in their own rooms than most of their nomadic tenants. They
were law-abiding thrifty folk, honest in business and apart from
the rentals charged they were probably better landlords than the
actual owners.
My recollections of Asylum Road remind me of one of the
biggest social changes which has taken place, hardly noticed by
most folk, during the past few decades. I refer to bed-bugs and
other similar vermin. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, an
improvement took place and whereas it was once a common occurrence
to find houses heavily infested with bugs and fleas, and persons,
less frequently, with lice, it is now as rare as it was once so
common. Inspection of houses under such conditions res a very
unpleasant duty. The bugs had a way of dropping on to unsuspecting
persons who stood in the doorways of bedrooms, and fleas seemed to
welcome a change of host. My experiences of these various types
of vermin are many, but the details are too unsavoury for repetition
here. The work of health education (which is nothing new to
sanitary inspectors, for thev have practised it in the course of
their duties over many years) is doubtless responsible to a
considerable degree for the remarkable improvement. The other
main cause is the improvement in the general standard of living
which has been equally spectacular except in the eyes of those
people who persist in referring to the "good old days". It has
been my lot to work amongst the people (of all classes) for the
past 45 years, and I have no hesitation whatever in saying that
for the labouring or working classes, as they were then known,
they were not good days.
In the matter of house drainage there was much to do in
Kingston thirty years ago. There was no systematic supervision
over, and testing of, new drainage systems. Indeed one seldom
was informed of proposed works and the first intimation of drainage
works was the builder's truck outside a house and the usual pipes
and impedimenta associated with such work. Owners of property
were reluctant to seek the help of the sanitary inspector for
fear of being called upon to expend large sums of money on what
they regarded as unnecessary refinements. Gradually this feeling
was removed. Owners found that they were actually protected
against the wiles of the ignorant jobbing man if the assistance
of the sanitary inspector was sought at the outset. Not always
was the result so satisfactory. I remember the occasion when
a large house on Kingston Hill had to be redrained. The owner
was advised to use methods which would have prevented fracture of
the pipes in the event of drought causing shrinkage of the heavy
clay sub-soil. The extra cost involved might have been about
8% of the cost of the works. The advice was not acted upon and
a few years later, when the owner died and the estate had to be
sold, the new owner required the executors to reconstruct the
whole of the system under the terms of the contract for sale.
In the intervening years there had occurred one of the long periods
of drought.
It was not only the private owner who showed reluctance to bring
about improvements. It is on record that in several parts of the
town sites of groups of houses were periodically subjected to floodin
from foul water sewers which were laid under the private ground.
The condition of these houses had to be seen to be realised.
The ground around some of the houses was soaked with sewage and
the atmosphere was foetid. Heavy boots and leggings (before the
use of rubber boots) were essential before one could walk over
the gardens. Apparently it was considered an impracticable task
to remove the basic causes of the flooding and that was the reply
I received when the matter was first reported. That it was a
heavy task I had no doubt, but I declined to believe that it was
an impossible one. The reader need not be wearied with all the
details. Suffice it to say that eventually I was given authority
to try to remedy these very insanitary conditions.