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41 sanitary authorities are not infrequent, and it may bo that during
the time this return was in course of preparation some small modification
of the staff of one or other of these authorities may have been
made.
The present return shews that the total number of Sanitary
Inspectors in the county, inclusive of five vacancies and 17 temporary
officers, is 188. This number for a population of 4,230,474 persons is
equivalent to one Inspector to every 22,503 inhabitant. In order to
compare the number of Inspectors at the present time with the
number employed in 1889, when the last returns of the number of
these officers was made, it is necessary to deduct the number of
inspectors of the City and Whitechapel, i.e., 15, seeing that information
as to these districts was wanting when the 1889 return was prepared.
Excluding these two districts, the number of inspectors employed in
1889 was 115, as compared with 173 in 1893, or an increase of 58.
This increase, however, is more apparent than real, for before the
passing of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, the police were
concerned in the abatement of smoke nuisances, a duty which, as the
result of the passing of that Act, now devolves solely upon the
Sanitary Authorities. I am informed that before the year 1891
48 police constables were engaged in this duty, 25 of whom were
wholly occupied in connection with it, and the remaining 23 partially.
In the interval between the two returns, the Infectious Diseases
(Notification) Act, the Housing of the Working Classes Act, the
Public Health (London) Act, and the Factory and Workshops Act
have become law.
It is very difficult to supply any precise material for comparing one
district with another in respect of its need of inspection and tho
sufficiency of the staff employed, particularly as the duties which
devolve upon the inspectors are not identical in every district. Thus
in some districts the inspectors are provided with clerical assistance
in the keeping of registers of complaints and proceedings, and in the
preparation of notices, while in other districts the inspectors do not
receive assistance of this sort.
The number of inhabitants to each sanitary inspector employed in
the several sanitary districts of the county is shown in the following
table:—