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188
evident that to maintain efficiency a commensurate
increase in the sanitary staff must be made. The
appointment of two additional Inspectors last year,
whose services will, I hope, be permanently retained,
was therefore a most important and beneficial step.
I suspect, however, that before long it will be found
advisable, if not absolutely necessary, to appoint
such an officer for each separate ward of the parish.
I may here point out one or two disadvantages
under which our Inspectors in common with those
of some other districts, labour: these are, in the
first place, the very great superficial extent of the
parish, which makes it a considerable part of a
day's labour to get from one extremity of it to the
other; in the second place, the fact that the police
courts are not only not within our parish, but at a
considerable distance from it—an arrangement
which necessarily leads to a very considerable
sacrifice of the Inspectors' time."
When this report was written the estimated
number of houses in the parish was 16,000, it is now
more than 32,000. Moreover, since that time many
fresh duties have been imposed upon the Inspectors,
more especially the carrying out of the Drug and
Food Act, the inspection of houses let in lodgings,
and the supervision of the disinfection of houses