HH62/45/57

Transcription

[Page] 2

and the employment of such a man would also allow the Sanitary Officers to
insist upon a much greater degree of tidiness and cleanliness than at present exists.
The District Committee have resolved to discharge the Errol scavenger at
Whitsunday, as they consider it unfair to pay him from the District Rate, he being
the only scavenger in the District. Instead of allowing Errol to retrograde thirty
years, in those days of sanitary progress, the obvious solution of the difficulty
would have been to place the other large villages on the same footing by employing
scavengers for them. The former Local Authority, who have hitherto paid for the
Errol scavenger, found the employment of such a man to be a success in every way.
Certainly the need of these village scavenger is urgent, and the Committee will
do well to see to some provision for such speedily, otherwise the consequences, as in
other Counties, may be disastrous. The Committee should ask for a Report upon
the sanitary condition of the villages with regard to the mode of disposal of house
refuse.
Farm houses have not been systematically inspected, but those examined were
found, with few exceptions, to be well supplied with water. Those exceptions
occur chiefly in the lower parts of the Carse of Gowrie, where the only drinking
water is obtained from the sluggish streams called Pows.
The house accommodation is on the whole good; a number of the houses are
old, but they are not in a condition to come under the clauses of the Public Health
or the Housing of the Working Classes Acts. There is abundant provision for
ventilation, the difficulty being to get the tenants to make use of it; but one great
fault in cottages is the laying of wooden floors near to the earth without proper
arrangement for ventilation underneath. The result is that abundant fungoid
growths occur, and when the house is shut up at night the exhalations from these
cannot but be prejudicial to health. Where such a state of matters has been found
to exist it has immediately been remedied.
There is either an absence of sanitary conveniences in connection with many
dwellings in the District, or primitive and dangerous arrangement for the same.
This matter is being rapidly remedied by your energetic Chief Sanitary Inspector,
under whose supervision much valuable work has already been done, - and this
without a single prosecution, - which fact augurs well for the progress of sanitation
in the District. When proprietors show a willingness to comply with the require-
ments of modern sanitation occupiers will soon do the same. There may be a certain
feeling that the Public Health Act is an unwarrantable interference with the liberty
of the subject, but a little reasoning enables the individuals affected to take the
common-sense view of the matter. The Act would, in my opinion, be much more
efficiently administered were the District Officials invited to attend the Public
Health Sub-Committee Meetings. This is a point to which serious consideration
should be given.
During the part of the year to which this Report applies, a general systematic
inspection has been made of the more populous parts of the District. In these the
topographical and geological features were examined, the water supplies noted, and
the general condition of the houses observed.
Special enquiries have been made, from time to time, into polluted water supplies,
with the result that, in three instances, new supplies have been provided; in one
case this was an extensive undertaking, but, with its completion will be settled
finally the now famous question of the Sanitary Condition of the Fishing Lodges.
There will soon be an abundant supply of pure water within easy reach of each
Lodge, and otherwise the Lodges are in fair condition.

[Note] 56

[Page] 3

The question of Sub-District Medical Officers has been before the District
Committee, and they have decided to appoint none at this time The Medical
Officer, in a Report upon this subject, gave his opinion as strongly in favour of their
services being retained. Without a mutual interest the Medical Officer and the
local practitioners will soon drift apart, much to the loss of the public weal. The
Local Government Act was not intended to supersede the Public Health Act, but to
supplement it; and the reason for appointing a District Medical Officer, without
practice, was not that the Parochial Medical Officers were unfit for their work, but
that from their small salaries and personal relations with those who were the authors
of nuisances, their hands were somewhat tied in the execution of the same. By the
dismissal of such men the County is losing valuable local knowledge,
which cannot be replaced. Again, with regard to granting certificates
of infectious diseases, either for removal to Hospital or for disinfection, these local
medical men, on their daily rounds, could make visits which cost nothing for
travelling expenses, but which, if made from headquarters, would cost the County far
more in the course of a year than the total salaries allowed.
This opportunity of publicly thanking Dr. Howison, Errol, for the very valuable
help given by him to the County Officials, in connection with an outbreak of Scarlet
Fever at Kilspindie, cannot be allowed to pass. It was indeed chiefly owing to the
energy displayed by Dr. Howison, and by Mr. Nish, the local Sanitary Inspector,
that the outbreak did not assume very grave dimensions.
No certification of nuisances under the Public Health Act has been required
during the past year in the District. Along with the Sanitary Inspector many
inspections have been made, and improvements have been carried out voluntarily,
in accordance with our wishes.
Several suspected waters have been analysed, and the analyses have been
submitted to me by the Sanitary Inspector. The results in general shewed that the
suspicions were justly founded, and the water has in such cases been pronounced
unfit for use.
In one case advice was required regarding a house alleged to be unfit for
habitation; but, on examination, it was decided that the source of unfitness lay, not
with the house, but with its inhabitants.
No action has been demanded with regard to offensive trades in the District,
neither has the sanitary condition of factories been brought under notice.
There are 17 retail bakehouses, and these have required considerable attention
during the past six months. Apparently no systematic inspection had been
previously made into their condition, and, with one or two exceptions, they were
found to be kept in bad order; some were in a very insanitary state, both externally
and internally. In every instance, however, all that has been required has been done
in cleaning, repairing, ventilating, and removing nuisances, &c. Four young
persons were found to be employed, and these were accordingly reported to H. M.
Inspector of Factories.
In connection with infectious cases, eighteen, special enquiries have been made:-
Enteric Fever, 5; Scarlet Fever, 12; and Diphtheria, 1. Three of the Enteric
outbreaks were single and isolated cases, in which it was impossible to trace the
source of infection; in another outbreak there were four cases, and enquiry proved
that they were the result of careless disposal of the excreta of former cases, - in
fact, the gross carelessness discovered could scarcely be believed unless seen. In
the Scarlet Fever cases on group of twenty-four was traced to one child, whose

[Note] 57