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the first cases reported under this section of the Act, the County
Council might very well be asked to contribute a part of the cost.
It is under Section 30 that most of the work has been carried
out under part II. of this Act. This section states that it is the
duty of the Medical Officer of Health to report any house
which appears to him to be in a state so dangerous or injurious
to health as to be unfit for human habitation in his district.
I have made 91 representations to the Housing of the
Working Classes Committee of the Vestry during the past
twelve months, and in all these cases the Committee have
passed the necessary resolution that an Order be made on the
owner to make such dwelling houses fit for human habitation.
It then became the duty of your Clerk to ascertain the owner,
a proceeding which very often involves considerable time and
trouble, and serve the statutory notice. The work to be done
is not specified in the Order, as the Act implies that an Owner
ought to know when his house is fit for human habitation, but
in most cases the owner applies to me for the particulars of the
work required to be done, and needless to say, I am always glad
to supply him with the required information so that he may
comply with the Order of the Committee; when the time of the
Order has expired I visit the premises and report to the Committee,
and in some cases where the work is not carried out, the
Committee visit the premises and authorise me to take proceedings
to close the houses. I then take out the summons and
the Clerk conducts the cases. During the past twelve months
we have taken proceedings in fifteen cases to close the houses,
in eight instances Closing Orders were made, and the other seven
were adjourned for four weeks, when your Clerk and myself
again appeared and the summonses were withdrawn, the houses
having been made habitable in the meantime. The details of
the various proceedings taken will be found in the Tables
annexed. Although this method of dealing with insanitary houses
involves considerable time and trouble, the results prove to be
very satisfactory; the premises on which proceedings have been
taken by me under the Act were in such a dilapidated condition
as to be almost impossible to deal with them effectively under
the Public Health Act.