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truism is put forward in a voluntary way it is apt to be unappreciated.
Meanwhile 3,000 children die from diphtheria in England and Wales each year.
Our present knowledge of the prevention of diphtheria is of a sufficient degree
of accuracy to allow legislation being passed for compulsory prevention, as was
done very many years ago (and is still in theory carried out) with regard to
smallpox. At the present all that can be said is that no parent need let its child
suffer from diphtheria, or, if this is possibly putting too optimistic a
construction on the matter, it would be better to say that no parent need let its
child die of diphtheria, and also need not let its child suffer from a severe
attack of the disease.
Housing during 1935 occupied a considerable proportion of the activities
of the department. In August the Housing Act, 1935, received the Royal
Assent and as a result the first organised attack on overcrowding was begun.
This consisted of a survey of nearly every house in the district in order to find
out the housing conditions generally present, the number of houses overcrowded
within the meaning of the Act, and the number of houses which were near the
border-line of overcrowding. It is generally recognised that the definition of
overcrowding in the Act is a lenient one, and will in the course of time be
improved upon. For example, all rooms in a dwelling are regarded as potential
sleeping rooms, a condition which does not accord with modern hygienic
practice, but which apparently was all that it was thought possible to get
approved by Parliament when the Bill was discussed. In the earlier part of the
year executive action was taken with regard to the Council's slum clearance
proposals, and enquiries were held by an inspector of the Ministry of Health.
The proposals were all subsequently confirmed, and in addition the proposals
of the Council with regard to individual unfit houses were eventually carried
out. By the end of the year the displaced tenants were being moved into new
houses built for them in Allenby Road, and the main parts of the Council's slum
clearance proposals were successfully completed. The 1930 Act, however, on
which these actions are based, is a continuing act and there will probably from
time to time be other unfit houses which will be found to come within its terms.
At the end of the year the first full-time Shops Inspector took up his
appointment. This appointment marks the wish of the Council to carry out to
the best of its ability the social proposals contained in the various Shops Acts,
especially the Shops Act, 1934. The Council in appointing a whole-time
Inspector for this purpose will, I feel sure, be amply repaid by the extra quality
of the work which can be performed.
From time to time gaps in the statutory control of various undertakings
become apparent, and in this connection it might be opportune to call the
attention of the Council to the question of control of ice cream premises. There
appears to be insufficient statutory control of such premises, and there is at least
one place in the district which, although it comes within the terms of the various
enactments, is by no means satisfactory as far as a high standard of cleanliness
is concerned. It is hoped that this will receive attention in the proposed Public
Health Bill dealing with food which is foreshadowed as one of a series of
consolidating and amending enactments of public health law, two of which
have already been introduced.
The report which follows is in outline in accordance with the suggestions
of the Ministry of Health.
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