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17,570. We went into that question with Mr. Boodle, and
Mr. Boodle said that he had a very high opinion of Mr. Ball
originally when he let the houses to him, but that he had since
been very greatly disappointed?— Has this only been found out
very recently then? Mr. Ball is no new tenant of the Marquess
of Northampton.
17,571. Apparently from the evidence the state of things has
got worse of late; but at all events Lord William Compton's
attention, as he himself frankly stated to us, was only called to
the matter in the course of last autumn, and he took the matter
up very warmly indeed. Some of the school board visitors who
were examined with regard to overcrowding also gave evidence
as to Mr. Ball's property. At question 1,410 Mrs. Bates was
asked this by Mr. Lyulph Stanley: "In Northampton Court do
"you know of one case where eight persons are living in one
"room," which the witness answered in the affirmative. Then
at question 1,412 she was asked, " Do you know whom that house
belongs to?" and she replied that it belonged to Mr. Ball,
a vestryman. The witness was unaware of the fact that we had
heard of Mr. Ball before, and stated it as a new discovery. That
is a house with two rooms and 12 persons living in the two
rooms. I suppose as vestry clerk of the parish you are aware
that those tenement regulations would give you power to abate
overcrowding of that kind?— Yes, but we abate overcrowding
where we find it out, even without any regulations, under clause
19 of the Sanitary Act, 1866.
17,572. But you would abate it more easily, would you not, if
you had them? I think not. We never have any difficulty in
abating overcrowding, where we find it out. If Mrs. Bates had
come to the vestry Hall, and made us acquainted with the fact,
our medical officer would have seen to it, and it would have been
put a stop to immediately.
17,573. You are not prepared to deny, are you, that there is
an immense amount of overcrowding in Clerkenwell? Query
what is overcrowding.
17,574. I suppose you would call eight people in a room, the
size of the rooms in these houses, overcrowding? I daresay 1
should. It depends upon the size of the rooms. Query, are the
people members of one family or of different families? Probably
of one family. Then again, query, does not the overcrowding
take place even without the owner of the property being aware
of it?
17,575. It is no doubt augmented at night, but this was day
overcrowding? Possibly in a case like that the family might
have had visitors calling upon them. Did Mrs. Bates make