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10
made on account of complaints or other reasons, and it is one of
the routine duties of all health authorities. A certain amount of
house-to-house inspection has been done every year of streets and
areas that appeared to most need it, and the results have fully
proved the necessity of much more being undertaken.
All parts of the district contain a large number of old houses
and cottages that are probably unhealthy from causes that might
be remedied, but about which no complaints are received, either
because the occupiers are ignorant or unwilling to complain. The
sole reason why so little has been done is that the staff of the
Health Department is not large enough to do more. The time
of the Sanitary Inspectors has nearly always been fully occupied
in dealing with urgent and pressing matters and many working
hours are unavoidably lost in getting from place to place owing
to the wide extent of the district and the fact that work may
frequently have to be done on the same day in parts several
miles away from each other.
Except for the appointment of an office boy recently, during
the past twelve years there has been no increase in the staff of
the Health Department in spite of the great increase of the district,
and the question of appointing an additional inspector is one that
will before long have to be seriously considered. Your new
Medical Officer of Health will in due time place his own views
before you, and I cannot of course anticipate what they may be,
but in my opinion the employment of a properly qualified female
inspector would be a wise and useful proceeding. Such an appointment
would be no new thing in this district as some time ago
you officially appointed a lady to act as an assistant inspector for
a period of six months. There are three particular duties that a
woman inspector could undertake if properly qualified; (1) work
in connection with the medical inspection of the school children,
(2) assisting in the inspection of home-workers and the sanitary
condition of workshops and factories employing women and girls
and (3) special work relating to the reduction of infantile mortality.
This last subject is one that I have so frequently brought
before you that I am afraid you may be tired of it. It has often