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44
thus have two or three hours additional to devote daily to the
duties of inspection, they would be able to get a much larger
amount of systematic house-to-house inspection done than
had been possible on the previous system. It was calculated,
indeed, that not only would each of the acting inspectors be
able to look more thoroughly than he had hitherto done after
the nuisances arising in his district, but that he would be
able to report also on the condition of at least a hundred
houses weekly, instead of only about thirty. The results of
the year's work have borne testimony to the judicious
character of these changes. Gearing, who was appointed to
do office work, found ample occupation in the duties of his
office; and the other three inspectors, released from that
portion of their labours, were enabled to do between them
a very much larger amount of house-to-house inspections
than four inspectors working on the old system had been
able to accomplish.
After much deliberation it was determined by the Vestry,
in the course of the year, to bring the Parish under the
operation of the 35th clause of the Sanitary Act, 1866, a
course which had already been taken, with more or less
success, in several of the Metropolitan Parishes. I here
quote the clause:—
"On application to one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries
of State by the Nuisance Authority of the City of
"London, or any district or parish included within the Act
"for the better local government of the Metropolis, or of
“any Municipal Borough, or of any place under the Local
"Government Act, 1858, or any Local Improvement Act, or
"of any city or town containing, according to the census