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alterations, that would have been an absurdity; the question
at issue was, could any alterations, short of pulling them
down, make the houses proper dwellings for human being's
to live in, and allow of the dwellings being continually kept
in a condition fit for human beings to live in.
The Sanitary Committee knew that the materials,
bricks, woodwork, plaster and mortar were much decayed,
and these could not be adequately removed, that the walls
of some of the houses were cracked and "settling down;"
that the manner in which the houses were built rendered
it impossible to provide proper ventilation, they must be,
and had proved to be, foully close or dangerously draughty.
The houses formed a court only ten feet wide, the rooms
averaging only 814- cubic feet, many of the rooms measui-ed
only 600 feet, and only 6 ft. high; it is practically
impossible to prevent such rooms being overcrowded.
Several of these houses had no staircase passage, merely
stairs ascending in the rooms themselves. The ground on
which the houses stood was dangerously polluted by drain
leakages, and this sewage soaked ground could not be
sufficiently removed without pulling down some of the
houses. Further the Sanitary Committee knew by experience
that the owners had failed, after repeated efforts, to
keep the houses fit for habitation, and the Surveyor
reported that no structural alterations could make them
proper dwellings for human beings to live in; that the
houses were so decayed and badly built, they could not be
made and kept in a condition suitable for health.
In the face of these facts the Sanitary Authorities
could not lend their sanction to improvements, which
would probably not be lasting and not prove adequate to
the requirements of health. They must insist upon the
dangerous conditions being removed in a way that would
ensure against their recurrence in a short space of time.
It was evident it would be best to pull the houses down.