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Notices Served. — Seven hundred and ninety-nine
Preliminary Notices or intimations were served during the
year in respect of 1,390 houses, and it was only found necessary
to serve 158 Statutory Notices upon the owners or occupiers of
200 houses.
I have pleasure in acknowledging that owners and agents
of property in the district have generally shown willingness to
co-operate with me in dealing with the numerous insanitary
conditions discovered, and have in almost every instance
readily complied with suggestions I have been able to make
from time to time in order to effect a general improvement in
the condition of their property.
The policy of sending an intimation notice or letter to the
person in default, pointing out the defects, etc., found, and
the work necessary to remedy the same, is a good one, inasmuch
as owners or agents generally readily fall into line and
comply with its requirements much more willingly than if the
matter had been first brought to their notice by means of a
Statutory Notice served by order of the Local Authority. They
realise that it is my desire, on behalf of the Local Authority,
to obtain the abatement of the nuisance, or the remedying of
the breach of bye-law, with as little friction as possible, and
that I am always ready to offer suggestions in order to enable
them to attain the desired end with as little cost as is compatible
with efficiency. There is always a tendency to resent
compulsion, and therefore any method which secures a maximum
amount of work being carried out with a minimum of
friction is the one to be aimed at, for the reason that by meeting
the owner or agent at the property and discussing the
faults or defects found, and the best and most economical way
of remedying them, it is often possible to secure more work
being done than could ever be enforced by a nuisance notice.
Opening up of Drains under Section 41 of the Public
Health Act, 1875.—As the result of applications of the smoke
or chemical test, it was found necessary to exercise the powers
with respect to the opening up of ground and exposing of
drains granted to the Local Authority by this Section at 21
houses, authority first having been obtained from the Council,
and due written notice given to the occupier, in each case.
The conditions found were duly reported to the Public Health
Committee and notices served on their instructions requiring
the re-construction or amendment of the defective drains, etc.,
as the circumstances required. In only one instance was the
notice not complied with. In this case as the work had not been
executed on the expiration of the time specified in the notice, I
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