View report page

7
class of persons we have to deal with, and the probability of
finding occasional overcrowding, with high rates of mortality,
and a predomination of death amongst young children.
The benefit which accrues from regular sanitary inspection is
shown by the discovery of instances, such as the following:—
In a room having only 900 cubic feet, the Inspector reports—
a widow with 5 children, aged 17, 15, 13, 11 and 9 respectively;
the landlord was served with a Notice to abate overcrowding.
Where is she to go to better herself is the question ? Builders
intended these houses at first for one respectable family, but
such as Andover Place and Carlton Place, in violation of
common sense and decency, they are let out in tenements and
single rooms, without those essential conditions of a dwelling,
which landlords should be compelled in all instances to provide.
There are indeed very few houses let out in separate holdings
but what are deficient in respect to cubic space, ventilation and
all needful appliances for washing and drying of linen, for the
reception of food and fuel, for speedy removal of refuse, slop
water, dust, &c., matters, which if neglected for a very short
time, pollute the air, and engender disease.
There is yet in reality no law to prevent the creation of
unhealthy districts as long as five or six families are allowed to
live in one house intended for a single family. It would be a
blessing, and great economy in the long-run, to make conditions
of structural fitness for all houses intended to be occupied by
more than one family. Houses should be built with reference
to the future health of the people who will have to live in them.
It will cost dear to this parish to maintain the poor population
that infest the tenement houses here referred to, and now, while
the fields are open and still unbuilt upon, it would be worth the
attempt to overcome the destructive influences likely to be
established in building of tenement dwellings as the population
gathers in this and other neighbourhoods. They will some day
be hives of pauperism; where many of the children must be
blighted, or grow up with such feeble constitutions, that they
become ineffective and unprofitable members of the community.