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115
w.c.'s, subsequently the ground being opened by the owner on request, the drains
extending through the back yards and under two houses were found to be brick
barrels of a uniform size of 18 inches. These barrel drains extended full size
throughout their whole length and had very little fall, and were more than half
filled up with fecal deposits. The whole of the drains and their contents were
removed and their course purified, good pipe drains laid, the yards paved all over with
good Portland cement concrete, properly shaped gullies provided under the draw taps
in the yards, the closets fitted up "Shoreditch pattern" with concrete floors (open
spaces under seats, seats hinged, and closets thus rendered available for urinals. These
were the first houses inspected by the Royal Commission during the late enquiry, and
.
the Commissioners had the opportunity of seeing the improved conditions on the one
side of the street, and the old foul conditions on the other in process of removal
" HOME OFFICE ENQUIRY."
Following upon the announcement by the Home Office of the appointment of
two Commissioners to enquire into the sanitary condition of Shoreditch (in consequence
of representations made to that department by "The Mansion House
Council"), the Vestry sustained a great loss in the death of its principal officer,
Mr. E. Walker, Vestry Clerk, and, following upon the enquiry held by the Commissioners,
the Vestry sustained a further great loss in the lamented death of
Dr. Henry Gawen Sutton, its Medical Officer of Health. Under these circumstances,
and by instruction of the Vestry Clerk, it devolves upon me to submit a few observations
upon the Enquiry and the report of the Commissioners.
When it became evident to your Medical Officer and the Sanitary Committee that
"The Mansion House Council" had determined to force the appointment of a Royal
Commission, it was at once recognised that no good could accrue by attempting to
deal with the insanitary condition of houses, on the line of the complaints of that
body; and it was held, that though your Inspector could have given full satisfaction
to "The Mansion House Council" by confining his attention to the items of the
complaints of their Inspectors, that it was wiser and much more in the interest of
public health that the ordinary and well considered practice of the Department should
not be departed from, in consequence of the receipt of an extraordinary number of
complaints, many of which were not of a serious nature, and which, with a very few
exceptions, referred exclusively to surface conditions.
Those complaints were, therefore, dealt with as circumstances permitted and in
conjunction with the ordinary work and the ordinary practice of the Department—
which requires the Sanitary Inspector to take cognisance of the evidence of defective
underground conditions and all other injurious conditions, although the matter of
complaint calling for his attention and visit may not be of a serious character; and
at the Enquiry which was opened on the 12th November, 1890, that order of procedure