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♦Including those specified in sections 2, 3, 7 and 8 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, as remediable under
the Public Health Acts.
Shop Acts.
The Sanitary Inspectors are not concerned with the provisions of these acts as to hours of
employment, closing days and arrangements for meals, but undertake the supervision of the
arrangements for hand washing and the sanitary accommodation in shops.
SECTION D.
HOUSING.
The increase in the number of houses in the borough will be appreciated when it is noted
that not less than 1,416 separate dwellings came into rating for the first time during the year.
The passing into law of the Housing Act, 1935, marked one of the most important stages
towards the improvement of the conditions under which a large portion of population has hitherto
been compelled to live. Its most striking provisions are those which define overcrowding and
under certain conditions make it a punishable offence on the part of the person who causes the
overcrowding or the owner who permits it.
The standard of overcrowding as laid down by the Act is admittedly a low one, but at any
rate it is clearly defined and may be considered to be satisfactory as a beginning. Under this
Act, the obligation was laid upon the local authority to cause a survey to be made to ascertain
the number of dwellings which were overcrowded on the basis laid down in the Act. Arrangements
to carry out this survey were made at the end of the year, four temporary investigators being
specially engaged for the purpose.
It was estimated that approximately 5,500 dwellings would have to be investigated,
occupied by a number of families considerably in excess of this figure.
The survey was commenced at the end of December under the direction of the Medical
Officer of Health.
The ordinary inspection of the district to ascertain the houses which, although unfit for
habitation, were capable of being rendered fit and those dwellings which were unfit and incapable
of being rendered fit at a reasonable expense, was continued actively throughout the year.
Considerable attention was paid to the condition of basement dwellings. In consequence
of the demand for houses during the past 16 years, the basements of the older type of large house
have been occupied as separate dwellings by those who were unable to pay the rent asked cither
for a whole house or the upper portion of a house. In consequence, the less well off families, most
frequently with children, have been compelled to live entirely in basements which, when the
houses were built, were only intended for kitchens, sculleries and larders and possibly a servants'
day room.
Such basement flats make an entirely unsuitable dwelling, especially for children. They
are, as a rule, sunless and the air invariably seems to possess a stagnant character which is almost
intolerable to those who are not used to it. It may be said without fear of contradiction that a
dilapidated cottage, all of which is above ground, is preferable as a dwelling to even the best of
basement fiats in the old houses.