View report page

13
VACCINATION RETURNS.
As usual, I include in my tables a record of the Vaccination
work which has been achieved during the year. These valuable
figures record the continued useful and careful work of Mr. W. M.
S. Sherman, the Vaccination Officer. His results are known
and appreciated outside the Whitechapel Union. In the last
returns received by the Local Government Board, it appears that
whilst in one Union the per centage of cases not finally accounted
for was 18.9; in Whitechapel and Woolwich it was 1.6 and 2.2
respectively. For the whole Metropolis 9.0 per cent. of cases
remained finally unaccounted for.
METEOROLOGICAL RETURNS.
The concluding statistical work for the year which I propose
to append as usual, are the Meteorological Tables. They deserve
more careful scrutiny than I am afraid they usually receive.
LEGISLATION DURING THE YEAR 1890.
The enactment which has priority, on account of its importance,
is the "Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890," (53 and 54
Vict., ch. 70.)
This Act consolidates and amends, as also repeals "Cross's Act,"
"Torrens' Act," and their amendments, as well as the "Labouring
Classes Dwellings Acts of 1851, 1866, and 1867," ; the "Housing
of the Working Classes Act, 1885," except sections 3, 7, 9, and
10 (so far as the latter relates to bye-laws). It also repeals
the "Labouring Classes Lodging Houses (England) Act of 1851,"
and the "Labouring Classes Lodging Houses (Ireland) Acts," and
the "Dwelling Houses (Scotland) Act." It is divided into seven
parts, which contain 103 sections. Certain temporary provisionsand
seven schedules are also included in this Act. Part i. may, for all
practical purposes, be thought of as Cross's Act. Part ii. is Torrens'
Act much amended. It gives power to local authorities to prepare
schemes very similiar to the arrangement in part i. An element of
doubtful benefit has been the substitution of the Medical Officer
for the Surveyor, as the Official upon whom is cast the chief responsibility
in its execution. It appears to have been amended with a view
to compel Local Authorities to execute large improvements, which
hitherto had fallen to the lot of the Central Authority. The latter,