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8
further authority to carry into effect several most important provisions for
regulating houses that are let out to more than one family. The want of this
power has been frequently alluded to in my Quarterly Reports ; but you can
now frame such rules and regulations with regard to Lodging-houses occupied
by the poor, as will bring them more effectually under your control.
You can, by the provisions of the New Act, determine the number of
Lodgers that each room shall contain; and not only have you been entrusted
with this power, but you have authority to determine that the present
indiscriminate herding together of adults of different sexes shall cease. It
is true, that the carrying out the rules and regulations which you may
adopt as regards these Lodging-houses, will entail a vast amount of labour
upon your Sanitary Officers; but, nevertheless, the existing evils of overcrowding
and indecent occupation are so greaf that stringent measures must
be adopted to lessen them. If the rules and regulations as regards Lodginghouses
which are-absolutely necessary to be put in force by all the Vestries
and District Begirds in the metropolis, and also the other provisions in the
Public Health Act, it will be necessary for the Medical Officer of Health to
devote his whole time to the duties of his office. In short, such is the
importance that I attach to the duties of Public Officers, whether Sanitary
Officers, or Medical Officers of Unions, that the performance of any work
beyond their public duties should not be recognized.
Having brought the subject of Lodging-houses under your notice, I was
directed to prepare such rules and regulations thereto as I thought would
be suitable for the better maintenance of the health of the district, and in
accordance with such direction, I prepared the following code for the consideration
of the Board.
Rides and Regulations (proposed by the Medical Officer of Health) to le
observed and enforced upon the Owners of all Houses which are let to more
than one family.
1. No owner of any house which is let out to more than one family, shall admit or
suffer to remain in such house, or in any room thereof, a greater number of
Lodgers or other persons than shall be fixed by the Board of "Works.
2. A ticket, signed by the Clerk to the Board of Works, stating the number of
Lodgers allowed to sleep in each such house, will be supplied to the owner
of each such house, which ticket must be fixed either on the inside of the
street-door or passage, so that the same may be readily seen by any person
entering the house.
3. In every room of each such house shall be put up in a conspicuous place a ticket,
signed by the Clerk to the Board, stating the number of Lodgers allowed
to sleep in such room, and this ticket, which will be supplied by the Board,
shall be kept at all times visible and legible.