View report page

10
Reverting again to our sanitary condition, it is worthy of remark
that the cottage property of our District has been brought
into a considerable better state than formerly. It is true that
much remains too old and dilapidated for perfect reformation,
but the greater portion is now supplied both with water and
drainage, and under the orders of your Sanitary Committee all
will be gradually brought within this salutary condition.
Much, however, as may have been the trouble and difficulty
of raising the older property out of the mire, there is much of the
new which threatens to be equally obnoxious. The speculative
building in many parts of Fulham Fields is much to be reprehended
and discouraged. I need only refer as an example to
what is generally styled "Fulham New Town," a locality where
the basements of the houses have been built below any available
sewerage, and which has led to constant floodings of cesspool
matter to the great danger of the public health. The neighbourhood
of Wellington Road at Sands End, where a large number
of small houses have been built, is literally without drainage.
When shall we have a Building Act which will render such
a state of things as this impossible?
Of open ditches there still remains one in our very midst,
"the Black Bull Ditch" an opprobrium and a blot upon our
escutcheon. The continued drainage of several large Piggeries
into this, renders its condition at times filthy beyond description.
Indeed, seldom can it be said of it, that it does not teem with
noxious exhalations.
The Creek at Hammersmith, though much improved by the
recent effort of the Metropolitan Board, is still a most objectionable
receptacle of filth, and needs further remedy.
Taking hence a retrospect of the past, there are many members
on your Board who will remember the open sewer, with all its abominations,
stretching northward from this spot to the confines of
the Parish at East Acton. This formed a type of our drainage
system some twenty years ago, now happily obliterated for ever
and closed from sight.
With the exception of Small Pox, which, as I have said,
lingered slightly up to the close of the year, comparatively little
sickness prevailed amongst us. Zymotic diseases could not be
said to have even their usual sway. Fevers of every type contributed
only 50 to our mortality, whilst deaths from Diarrhoea
were certainly not above the average.
No locality within the District has been specially affected
with sickness during the entire year, neither has there been any
outbreak of Fever traceable to defective drainage or water supply.
Several cases of overcrowding in dwelling houses have been
detected by the Inspectors, and these have speedily been remedied
by the ordinary notices.