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7
The 114 compulsory orders above mentioned contained the particulars
of the sanitary improvements required in 316 houses, and
the 18 summonses those that were required in 54 houses. In
order to make the summonses as little oppressive as possible, it has
been the practice to include in the same summons the several sanitary
defects which exist in each house. This plan has hitherto answered
so well, that in all the cases which have been brought under the notice
of the Magistrates, the work required to be done has been carried out
by the parties summoned.
As the greater or less promptitude which may be displayed by the
Sanitary Officers in the removal of nuisances, will affect the health of the
public, every facility ought to be afforded to them in the discharge of their
duties, so that there may be the least possible delay in carrying into effect
the provisions of the Nuisances' Removal Act.
The average number of courts visited daily by the Inspectors is 10.
Many more than this number of courts could be inspected every day, if so
much of the Inspectors' time were not taken up by their being compelled to
visit again and again the same houses, in consequence of the great reluctance
shown by the owners to comply with the Notices and Orders given for the
required sanitary improvements.
The over-crowding of tenements, and the inhabitation of under-ground
rooms utterly unfit for human habitation, continue to be the greatest
obstacles to the improvement of the health of the district. In my
Quarterly Report, ending 1st July, 1865, I alluded to the operation of the
Sewers' Act for the City of London, in preventing over-crowding. In the
"Dublin Improvement Acts Amendment Act, 1864," it is enacted
(section 24), "That from and after the commencement of that Act, any
and every house, or part of a house, usually or occasionally let in separate
floors, rooms or other tenements, for human habitation, for any shorter
period than four weeks, at rents not exceeding three shillings per week,
should be deemed a public lodging-house, irrespective of the valuation of
such house, or part of a house, for assessment to the relief of the destitute
poor, And the person in the beneficial receipts of the rents of such house,
or part of a house, should be deemed to be the keeper of such public
lodging-house, and, as such keeper, liable to the laws, rules, regulations,
and penalties in that behalf."