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17
were engaged in needlework and dress-making establishments
in this Parish, besides a large number occupied in
private houses unknown. Fifty large establishments
in which numbers of females were employed were then
under regular inspection, and it was hoped that
when the return alluded to had been made to the
Inspector of Factories, that all the shops where labor
and handicraft of various kinds were carried on, would
be brought under supervision by the Amended Act.
I therefore now express my disappointment that so
important a branch of the public health should not
have been provided for by better legislation.
The inspection, as at present conducted, (by only
taking cognizance of the hours of work and ages of
the workers,) must be of a very limited and imperfect
character, in which the efficiency of ventilation, the
cleanliness, the cubic space for each person, and a
proper w. c. accommodation does not form part of the
duty of the Inspectors. To keep a record of inspections,
and to make suggestions for and carry out
sanitary improvements, is ample work to occupy the
time of a special officer; nor can the Act be well carried
out—certainly not economically—except by officers of
local authority, who possess superior local knowledge
of all shops and places used as workshops, and who
get casual information which it is impossible for a
stranger to the place visiting at intervals to obtain.
Systematic Sanitary Inspection.
This work had to be suspended last year in consequence
of Inspector Clifford taking in hand the
Canal Basin inspection, and the prosecutions connected
c