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the subject, should like to clear up one or two points. I see that I am required
to state "The cause of the evil reported on, and tho remedy thereof." Now,
in the report relating to Martha Court the principal points seem to be :
(a) That the flooring of the lower rooms is from eight to twelve inches below
the level of the forecourts ;
(b) That houses constructed back to back cannot be properly ventilated;
(c) That there are two W.C.'s only for eight houses.
I should be glad of information on the following points, viz. : —
(a) Are the houses unfit for habitation because the floors are below the
level, &c. ?
(b) Are they unfit for habitation because they are back to back ? If so, the
only remedy would be to pull down half of them.
(c) How many houses of this character in your opinion should one W.C.
serve ?
I am sorry to trouble you, but if you can instruct me on these points it will
much facilitate the preparation of my report, which I should like to get before
tho next Vestry, if possible.
I am, dear Dr. Hate,
Yours faithfully,
F. W. BARRATT.
The following is my reply:—
February 13 th, 1888.
Dear Mr. Barratt,
I have carefully considered your letter, and also the four conditions
which as you say contribute to the insanitary condition of Martha Court. You
ask me which of these conditions causes the houses to be in my opinion unfit
for human habitation. Now, I object to bind myself to any one of these four
items, and say that the houses in question are unhealthy because all the four
conditions you name obtain at one and the same time on these premises, and
that this insanitary total is the "evil complained of," and not the separate
items.
I have looked well into tho Act of 1868, and I am sure that section five
provides for a health report only. It would be plainly unreasonable to require
a Medical Officer of Health to specify works to be done of which a Surveyor
is the only competent judge; and I consider that I should have acted up to
what is sought for if, in the certificate read at the last meeting of the Vestry,
I had said, "That from the number of deaths and cases of disease in the houses
ABC and D, and from their general insanitary surroundings" (without specifying
them), "I report that they are in a condition dangerous to health, so as to bo
unfit for human habitation." The Act nowhere requires me to state reasons,
but merely to follow the wording of the fifth section.
This is not so when we come to the instructions to the Surveyor, who
is required under the sixth section to report on the cause of the evil referred to
in the report of the Sanitary Officer. This may mean the cause of the fever,
low state of health of the inhabitants, or what not: the Surveyor may find the
cause to be deficient fall of the drainage, that there is no adequate provision for
ventilation, or a hundred other things. Next he is to specify the remedy; the