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10
tioners attending the centres at a meeting of these officers held
shortly after that time.
During the year 4,300 applications were dealt with. In 3,378
cases the parents were unemployed, and in 311 were on short time.
650 of these families at the time of investigation of circumstances
were found to be absolutely destitute.
There is surely no great extravagance to complain of in this
direction and it is difficult to understand how any justification can
be attempted for the attacks on the Public Health Services that
have been made, on the grounds of economy, in the daily press.
In this Borough the removal of household refuse represents a rate
of 10d. in the pound, a useful figure for comparison as even the
most rigid "economist" does not suggest that household refuse
should be allowed to accumulate.
The cost of the entire Public Health Department as regard
disinfection, inspection of houses, workshops, unsound food, etc-,
expenditure in connection with infectious disease, mortuary,
cleansing station, tuberculosis dispensaries, maternity and child
welfare centres and doctors, and in every other direction ; the
entire expenditure, in fact, as regards all the activities of the
department represents a rate of little more than half that sum.
The net estimated cost to the Borough of Maternity and Child
Welfare work, including the supply of milk that has caused so
much comment, for the coming year is less than a penny rate;
86d. to be exact.
The Electrical Engineer in a report to the Public Health
Committee stated that if every householder in Hackney could be
induced to burn his waste paper and other inflammable rubbish
instead of putting it into the dustbin for removal to the Destructor,
the rates in this one direction alone could be reduced by 3¼d. in
the pound, more than half the cost of the Public Health Department.
In what direction does true economy lie? It has been