View report page

5
The facts referred to by your Committee do not of course prove
that the houses which at present remain are either good or desirable
residences for human habitation but they do prove that revenue to a
large extent in rates has been lost and that a vast number of the
most indifferent houses in the District have been removed, and also
that, wisely or otherwise, a large number are about to be removed,
and it further brings your Board face to face with the faCt that great
overcrowding of such houses as remain, must of necessity take place.
The demand for room is urgent beyond the conception of those who
are unacquainted with the circumstances, and the rents are exorbitant
as compared with the accommodation, and thus the wholesale or indiscriminate
destruction of the residences of the very poor makes what
was bad, infinitely worse.
This evil has, within the last few years, been greatly intensified
by the arrival within the district of a vast number of foreign Jews.
The number in the district, in 1881, was upwards of y,ooo, which number
has been swelled very considerably since that period, they are of
the very poorest class, whose views of decency and cleanliness appear,
from evidence which has been before your Committee, to be of the very
lowest possible order, and whose habits degrade the condition of
every house they occupy to the lowest level. The condition of the
houses so occupied by these poor Jews, is such as to form a considerable
demand upon the attention of your Medical Officer and
Inspectors, as these houses have to be constantly under supervision to
endeavour to counteract the filthy condition of the rooms, yards and
waterclosets occupied and used by these people ; and your Committee
are clearly of opinion, that it is the habits of the people more than the
condition of the structural repair of the houses that has misled the
agents of the Jewish Guardians in framing their reports. This question
is one to which, your Committee are of opinion, most serious
attention should be directed, and one as to which the Jewish Board
of Guardians could, in the opinion of your Committee, co-operate
with your Board with very great advantage in two ways ; firstly, by
exercising some supervision with regard to the housing of newly
arrived immigrants, which could readily be effected, as all members
of the Jewish persuasion naturally congregate to a common centre;
and secondly, by inducing Jewish ladies to volunteer to visit the
houses of these poor people, or by the formation of a staff of visitors
for that purpose, to instruct ar.d encourage them in the sanitary
principles to be observed by them in their habitations; such a
system would,' your Committee think, be of vast use and greatly
assist the efforts of the Sanitary Officers of your Board, and the
sanitary condition of the people would be much improved.