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15
9. The flushing of courts and alleys.
For further particulars respecting the sanitary work performed by the
Officers of the Board, I must refer you to my sixty-two Quarterly Reports,
which have been printed aud circulated during the sixteen years that your
Board has been in existence.
Provisions of Acts which have NOT been complied with.
While on the one hand I have set forth the amount of work which your
Board have accomplished for improving the sanitary condition of the District,
I feel bound to mention some of the provisions of the Sanitary Act which
have not been carried out. As these clauses are of great importance to the
public health, I hope that the Board will soon be convinced of the necessity
of putting them in force. The clauses I refer to are five in number, viz.,
the 47th, 24th, 27th, 28th, and 37th.
By the 'provisions contained in the 47th section, powers appear to be
given to a Local Board to purchase and take lands otherwise than by
agreement.
By this section of the Sanitary Act, the Board would be enabled to
purchase a house, or portion of a house stretching over any court or alley to
the prevention of that free circulation of air which is so essential to the
health of the inhabitants. Besides, a majority of these covered entrances
are used by the public as urinals, and are thus not only rendered nuisances
to the public generally, but are detrimental to the health of the immediate
residents.
It is true that such improvements as those I have indicated would not,
to the general public be so apparent, as the opening out of a new thoroughfare
; nevertheless, the influence which such improvements, steadily persevered
in, would have upon the public health of the District would be incalculable,
while a corresponding saving in poor-rate expenditure, for the maintenance
of sick paupers, would be effected.
By the provisions of this section land may be obtained, and may either
be kept as open spaces, or might be used for the erection of a temporary
hospital for epidemic diseases, or for the erection of a mortuary, or for any
other purpose contemplated in the Act.
The 24th section authorizes the Local Board to provide and maintain a
carriage or carriages for the conveyance of persons suffering under any
contagious or infectious disease, to a hospital or place for the reception of
the sick, or to their own homes.
The 27th section authorizes the Local Board to provide a proper place
for the reception of dead bodies ; and when such place has been provided,
the relieving officer, upon his obtaining an order from the Magistrate, is in
duty bound to bury the body within the time prescribed by the Magistrate,
provided that the friends of the deceased refuse to bury it; and the expense