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Much work has been done also in paving yards to keep the
earth under and around the dwellings dry and pure, such dryness
is indispensible for freshness, and to enable air to circulate through
the surface earth, and disinfect by ox1dation any organic products
that might accumulate and become poisonous.
FREEHOLDERS AND LEASEHOLDERS.
In referring to the improvements effected in many of the
dwellings of this Parish, I cannot omit to mention, that the
arrangements which exist and which are made from time to time
between Freeholders and Leaseholders, whilst more or less
profitable to themselves, have certainly not tended to promote the
health of the Parish. On the contrary, the Leaseholders in many
instances having regard to the termination of their interest in their
property, have allowed their houses year by year, to become more
and more decayed and dilap1dated.
In the pending alterations in Local Government of the
Metropolis, some power should be conferred on the Sanitary
Authority of the Parish to enable them to exercise a reasonable
degree of control over the agreements made between Freeholders
and Leaseholders, leaving both to study their indiv1dual advantages
but at the same time, taking care that whilst they profit by the
general industry of the inhabitants of the Parish, and obtain tenants
accordingly ; they must adapt their mutual arrangements to the
requirements and the interest of the public health.
Whilst the present system of leasing continues resulting in the
construction and retention of houses unfit for the requirements of
working men's families, like those in Wilmer Gardens (described in
Inspector Alexander's Report, to which I direct attention) the product
will be, as it has been the perpetuation of conditions, which
gathers within the parish, numbers of sickly impoverished persons
who become a tax on the ratepayers, and the diseases amongst
them, increases the death rate of the Parish above that of some of
the surrounding and more favoured districts, furthermore the
position those persons occupy in the parish would probably be taken