View report page

—the prompt removal of infectious Cases to extraparochial
Hospitals, and the now frequent use of
our public Mortuary, are congratulatory circumstances.
There are, however, in the eastern border
of St. James's parish, a large number of houses
which, though comfortable dwellings so long as they
were the residences of single families, are now
increasingly being underleased in order to be let out
as tenement houses. These houses are often
utterly unsuitable for occupation when every
room may be made to lodge an entire family. In
such houses for instance a large number of families
are at the mercy of some one filthy person who may
stop up a water closet or choke a drain, and under
such circumstances a most disgusting state of things
frequently arises. Dealers in these tenement houses
make enormous aggregate rentals out of the improvident
working people whom they thus herd
together, and persistent efforts on the part of the
Sanitary Officers are needed to goad some of these
"landlords" into keeping their "property" in a
decent condition. There can be little doubt that
the clcarance of some of these quarters and the
construction of Industrial Dwellings would be a remunerative
enterprise as well as a public benefit.
My attention has been called to the need of
Public Lavatories and Retiring Rooms for women.
In the Parish of St. James's, where so much
shopping is done and to which so many working
women have to make frequent journeys, this need
is especially pressing.