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their means, and in the second place, the caretakers overlook them
•in their careful plan of selection. It follows that they must drift
into other rooms in houses, perhaps, already sufficiently occupied.
It is thus clear that the very class of persons requiring most
urgently some better accommodation is the class for which the large
building Trusts have not provided. Could not the Guinness Trustees
do something towards compensating the very poor for the
lack of consideration which has been awarded them? It is useless
to expect that the rents which this class could afford would pay for
land and buildings, and then enable a four per cent. dividend to
be declared—but given the rooms in the first instance from some
benevolent source, they would then be self-supporting. A better
hygienic condition would reduce the sickness and death-rates, and
the lessened risk to the general public would amply compensate for
the outlay, and for the necessary supervision.
Apart from the many improvements which have been effected
amongst individual houses during the year, some very important
works have been carried out at the instigation of your Sanitary
staff. I may mention two, where considerable structural alterations
are now going on. In one case the builder's contract is £444
for eight houses; and in another the lowest tender amounted to
£378 for a block of about a dozen houses.
To those who are of opinion that the perfection of health results
from the possession of "a sound mind in a sound body," it must
be a source of gratification that through the efforts of your Board,
the Public Libraries' Act has been adopted for the Whitechapel
District To provide a cheerful room with well-selected literature,
where the occupants of tenements may be educationally entertained,
is a distinct move in the right direction.
I must not conclude without an allusion to the addition in our
Sanitary staff. I feel confident that the work of Mr. Sleath will
assist very much the work of Sanitary reform which is in progress.
In inviting your attention to the results of the Inspectors' labours
which they have tabulated for your perusal, it becomes my pleasing
duty to chronicle the efforts which the Messrs. Wrack always make
to carry out my wishes for the welfare of the District. Their
genial manner facilitates business, and it becomes less seldom
necessary to have recourse to magisterial aid to obtain the