View report page

28
siderably less than in 1877, viz.: 605 against 743, and it is to
be hoped that as many old and defective drains have for several
years past been re-constructed, that the number of choked drains
in future will be somewhat diminished; but as a large proportion
of these nuisances result from carelessness of servants and
other occupiers of houses, especially amongst the poor, we must
expect the number from this cause to remain nearly the same. The
total number of nuisances arising from defective drainage, viz.,
1152, was less than in 1877 by 228; and of nuisances from want
of whitewashing, cleansing and repairing, 2061; from badly
paved and drained yards, 484; of broken and unpaved dust bins,
418; and of defective water supply apparatus, ] 82, making a
total of 3200 nuisances arising from defects in houses and their
adjuncts. There were 697 houses disinfected; 36 overcrowding
cases abated (some of these being instances of indecent overcrowding);
186 accumulations of stable dung, and other offensive
matters; and 941 other nuisances not included under the above
headings. In addition, the dwelling rooms in 163 houses were
measured, and notices served limiting the number of occupiers in
accordance with the provisions of the Sanitary Act and Amendment
Act. Notices were also served in 697 houses, for disinfection
of the whole or some of the rooms, in consequence of
infectious diseases having appeared therein, and above 5000
notices of various kinds were served for the abatement of
nuisances.
The number of premises inspected during the year, many of
them several times, was 8212, or nearly one third of all the
houses in the District. The list of streets and other public
places inspected in 1878 shows that the Inspectors visited, under
the provisions of the Sanitary Act, 6104 houses, in which they
found 9051 families consisting of 39,241 persons, occupying
26,200 rooms, or about one-and-a-half persons to each room.
The rooms are undoubtedly small and low, many but little more
than seven feet in height, and do not admit of much overcrowding
without considerable injury to health, so that the