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No. 11 in that street. The room was used by a foreigner lor a school,
in which young children were taught the Hebrew language. In this
room which was nine feet long, eight feet wide, and eight feet high,
there were twenty-five children, whose ages varied from four to seven
years, and also the master and his wife; in all twenty-seven persons;
thus giving only an average of 21.3 cubic feet of space for each
occupant of the room. Mr. Wrack learnt that occasionally there was a
much larger number of children present at one time in this room.
The Inspector further adds, that independently of the small size of
the room, it was totally unfit for a school, in consequence of its confined
situation. The atmosphere of the room was described as being most
oppressive, and the children looked pale and sickly.
The overcrowding of school rooms for young children, I am sorry
to say, is of very frequent occurrence, and would not be discovered
unless by a house to house visitation. Whenever cases of school
rooms are found to be overcrowded, legal proceedings are always
taken for the abatement of the nuisance.
Retention of Dead Bodies in Rooms occupied by Families
as Living and Sleeping Rooms.
Mr. Inspector Battram reports that he discovered in two different
rooms, which were occupied by families, two dead bodies; one was
that of a young woman, at 58, Gower's Walk, which, at the time of
the Inspector's visit, had been kept uncoffined for four days in the
room where the father and two young children lived and slept.
Information of this nuisance was given at the Sanitary Office, when
Mr. Battram, immediately on seeing the case, directed the attention
of the Relieving Officer to the same, and the body was removed.
The other case was that of a man who died suddenly at No. 12,
Everard's Place. In this case an inquest had to be held, and it was
some time before the wife and relatives allowed the body to be
removed for the purpose of holding the inquest. After the inquest
the body was brought back to the same room in the house in which
the man died, and was kept there for seven days. In this room three
persons lived and slept.
Surely it is full time that a proper mortuary was built for the use
of this District, in which a dead body might be kept under the control
of officials until the day of the funeral.