View report page

17
Inspector Clifford, and were at one time also under the
same kind of systematic inspection as the tenant-houses
until the work got interrupted by the epidemic of
Smallpox in 1872, and since the pressure of other
duties. The importance of house to house, and room
inspection, extending to the mews and stables, will be
shown by the fact that there were at my last estimate
in 1872, about 120 mews in the parish under inspection,
containing upon the average in the stables, 50 horses,
and in the rooms above, 40 adult persons, 35 youngchildren
in each mews.
The gross amount of population in streets of
the tenant-house character is about 33,000, and
of these 17 per cent. are children under 5 years of
age. The amount of sanitary work undertaken by the
Vestry for promoting the comfort and health of this
class of persons can scarcely be appreciated, without
personal knowledge of the many details it involves.
Overcrowding is kept down as far as possible, for practically
no fixed arbitrary law can be peremptorily
carried out. It is not possible to secure 500 cubic feet
of breathing space for the adults, and 250 for each
child. It will be seen from Tables VI. that vast
numbers of families are living in single rooms. Amongst
these many who earn good wages, could well afford to
pay for two rooms. I must add that too frequently the
scantiness of house accommodation has arisen from the
improvident and drinking habits of parents, and the
consequent reduction of the family, either to absolute
pauperism, or the verge of it, which is worse.
If we take the average of a working-class family,
c