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17
Nearly 15 per cent. of these total deaths were attributable to
Zymotic diseases, whereas for the whole of the District it was
only slightly over 13 per cent.
I regret to say that a careful study of all the circumstances, so far
as I am able to appreciate them, in connection with the Model
Dwellings in the Whitechapel District, has not enlisted me
amongst the enthusiasts of this method of providing for the
housing of the Working Classes.
Under this Act, your Officers have been enabled to obtain some
very important structural improvement during
Housing of the the year. I cannot convey to your Board conWorking
cisely a summary of the work thus performed,
Classes Act, better, than by quoting from a letter which I
1890. sent to the Clerk to the London County Council
at the end of the year. The letter was a reply
to a request for information in the form of a report concerning
certain representations which the Council is empowered to ask
for:—
" So that the Council may now have full information upon the
" works carried out by the Whitechapel District Board under the
" Act mentioned, I have appended a complete record up to date.
" By such returns it will be seen that in two cases only have
'' Courts of Law been invoked to aid the Board in carrying on
"this part of its work. It is further to be noticed that the returns
" indicate that through the action of the Board of Works for the
" Whitechapel District, 46 houses have been closed and pulled
"down; 16 are undergoing process of demolition; 53 have been
" closed by consent of the owners, and 8 by Magistrates' orders;
" 19 have been repaired and cleansed, and are re-occupied : and 28
" are now, under contract, being extensively repaired. Thus in
" less than 10 months, 170 houses have been dealt with by the
" Board."
From a careful study of the New Public Health (London) Act,
1891, I am not sure, but in some cases, the modes of procedure
introduced as well as the ultimate results to be derived from its
operations, will prove it to be better than the Act of 1890.