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10
In this, my 10th Annual Report, it may be of interest
to briefly review some of the most important changes
that have been effected in Sanitary matters and general
improvements during the last 10 years. In the year
of my first Annual Report (1895) the general death-rate
was 14 per 1000, and that of the preceding year, when
Wealdstone was a much neglected offshoot of the Hendon
Union Rural Sanitary Authority, it stood at 17.2 per
1000. For the last five years it has only just exceeded
8 per 1000.
At this period (1895) many of the houses were badly
built and imperfectly drained. The population for that
year was 3141. The ratio of infectious diseases to
population stood at 10 per 1000, whereas last year
(excluding chicken-pox, which was only made notifiable
as a temporary measure from June, 1903, to June, 1904)
it stood at 3.7 per 1000, and this year at 3.6 per 1000.
The rateable value has much more than doubled itself.
A good Recreation Ground and Cemetery has been
provided. A temporary Hospital and Mortuary have
been supplied. Tne former will be of great use as an
ordinary Isolation Hospital when a suitable site can be
found. Since 1900 suitable provision has been made for
the treatment of infectious cases in' the Isolation
Hospital of a neighbouring Authority, an arrangement
which on the whole has worked very satisfactorily.
Seven building estates have been developed, comprising
24 streets equalling in length 3 miles 150 yards,
and sewered on the double system. Nineteen roads
have been made up under the Public Health Act, 1875,
equal to 3 miles in length, and road making is in progress
equalling 2/3 of a mile in length. Our roads and
streets are very much better kept, cleansed, and lighted.
There has been an immense improvement in the
condition of the Sewage Disposal Works. Writing of
these in 1896 1 said :—" No scheme will prove satisfactory
that does not provide for the thorough precipitation
of the solids, and I believe even then it will be found
necessary to provide filter beds, as the nature of the soil
is of little use for the purposes of filtration." Experience
has confirmed my views, and the Works are being worked
on those principles with a very satisfactory result. The
Infectious Diseases (Prevention) Act of 1890 has been
adopted, and a portable apparatus for steam disinfection
of clothes and bedding (Dr. Thresh's) has been supplied.