View report page

26
consider the measure will be most useful in assisting the work
of my department.
Housing, Town Planning, &c., Act, 1909.—The chief
provisions of this Act, affecting the administration of the
Sanitary Department, are those dealing respectively with (a)
Amendment of procedure for securing Closing Orders and
Demolition Orders in respect of houses unfit for human
habitation, (b) Maintenance of houses for the working classes
in a condition reasonably fit for habitation.
In the former case the old and cumbersome method of
obtaining Closing or Demolition Orders from the Courts has
been superseded by a drastic alteration of the law which now
makes it the "duty" of the local authority to make a Closing
Order, on the report of any of their Officers, or other information,
if satisfied that any house is dangerous or injurious to
health, or unfit for habitation. Demolition Orders may be
made in a similar manner. These orders are, however, subject
to appeal to the Local Government Board by the persons on
whom they are made. It will thus be recognised the usual
procedure is greatly simplified, which should considerably
facilitate effective dealings with property of this class.
The second provision referred to enables the local
authority to exercise control over the state of repair in which
houses let to the working classes (in this district at rentals not
exceeding £16 per annum) are kept, with power to inspect and
issue notices requiring the execution of specified repairs, which
are considered necessary to make the houses reasonably fit for
human habitation.
I regard this as an important provision, long overdue, and
consider that its operation will enable the sanitary authority to
maintain a more reasonable standard of habitable repair, in this
class of property, which should have a beneficial result on the.