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for a considerable time, at rents varying from £40
upwards. This entails a considerable loss in rates, and
this loss the town will continue to suffer until the owners of
these properties put them into order. There is plenty of
demand for such houses, as is shown by the rapidity with
which good houses of this class are snapped up.
The chief defects are old pan closets; and insufficiently
ventilated, or unventilated, soil pipes; rain water pipes not
disconnected over trapped gullies; drains improperly laid
and not disconnected from the sewers; and badly arranged
basements without a dry area. In all new houses concrete
over the basement is obligatory, and rightly so, when it is
considered that the heat of the house (more especially in
cold, wet, or frosty weather, when the ground is sealed),
tends to draw the air that is always present in the
interstices of the soil, into the house, unless it is covered
over with impermeable material.
The cheaper houses are mostly of modern construction
and fairly well arranged, but there is a certain amount
of property erected before the introduction of the bye-laws,
and as a rule occupied by the poorest classes, that requires
attention. Several landlords have been called upon to
improve their premises and have complied with my requests.
The paving of back yards in all houses of this class is most
necessary for the health and well being of the occupiers, and
every effort is being made to get this improvement carried
out. In revising the Bye-Laws provision should be made for
dealing with the above-mentioned matters.
In the higher rented parts of the town there are many
trees in the gardens, and in some of the streets trees have
been planted, but in the Canbury district there is a great
want of greenery, and I should recommend the planting of
trees in these streets, as a protection from glare, and for the
health giving properties of green growing leaf in places that
are thickly populated.
118 new houses have been built during the year.
The site of the town has made the sewerage a very
difficult problem, as the requisite fall is not easily attained.
The institution of the separate system all over the Borough
would, in my opinion, to a great extent remedy this
evil, as when the house soil, and slop waste, only is
taken a much smaller sewer suffices, and the smaller
the sewer the less fall is necessary in order to make
the flow self-cleansing. In addition, the street washings