HH62/1/DUNBAR/23

Transcription

[Page] 22

Eastern District. - Table IV. shows that Cumbernauld parish had
the largest percentage of two-roomed houses in the Eastern District,
they forming no less than 50·6 per cent. of the total, while of one-
roomed houses there were 24 per cent. In nearly all the miners'
rows the houses have two apartments, and the large number of
these rows in the parish accounts for the high percentage. In
Kirkintilloch (including the burgh) there were 32 per cent. of
one-roomed, and 44 per cent. of two-roomed houses. In East
Kilpatrick (including Milngavie and Bearsden) there were only 13
per cent. of one-roomed houses, while houses of two rooms
amounted to 40 per cent. It will be seen further on, that East
Kilpatrick has the lowest death rate in the Eastern District. In
West Kilpatrick one and two-roomed houses were in equal
numbers, and between them they formed 71 per cent. of the
total.

The next point is the character of the accommodation. Doubt-
less here, too, there is a gradual improvement. In the more
modern of the miners' rows, as at Barrhill and Auchinstarry, the
houses are of a very good class. In some other rows I found that
coal houses had not been provided, and that coals were stored
under the beds in the kitchen. But a house to house visitation
throughout the county would reveal a great deal of dampness in
walls and floors, and a great want of ventilation, owing mainly to
windows not made to open. In connection with an outbreak of
typhus fever at Renton, to be referred to later on, I inspected a
number of houses in the neighbourhood of some of the cases.
Here are some of the results as jotted down in my note-book:-

(a) House of two apartments. Walls damp. Ground at back
higher than floor level. Front window not made to open.
Upper sash of back window does not open.
(b) Damp house. Upper sash of back window does not open.
(c) Exactly like (b).
(f) Back wall damp. Upper sash of front and back windows
fixed.
(h) A one-roomed house. Dimensions, 14 ft. x 12 1/2 x 8 1/2 =
1488 cub. ft. Seven inmates, of whom five are over
ten years old. Cubic space per head (counting two
children as one adult), 248 ft.

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(i) Walls damp.
(j) A two-storey tenement. Back wall badly in need of
repair. Rain-water pipe broken. Plaster in stairway
broken.
(k) One room, 9 1/2 ft. x 9 1/2 x 8 = 722 cub. ft. Occupied by
two adults and three children. Cubic space per head
206 feet.
(l) Upper sash of windows fixed. Walls damp.
(m) One room. Back wall very damp. Not lathed. Dimen-
sions, 19 ft. x 13 x 7 1/2. Seven occupants, with 265
cubic feet of space each.

These are notes of the condition of some of the houses in one of
the worst parts of Renton, and I do not, of course, suggest that
they at all indicate the average condition in the Vale of Leven.
Time has not permitted a systematic examination of the condi-
tion of the dwelling-houses throughout the county, and I do not
propose to make a detailed report regarding individual nuisances
of this class that have come under my notice, or to which
Mr. Dunbar has called my attention. In some villages I found
that the occupants of damp or otherwise faulty houses were
also the owners, and where such owners are in poor circumstances,
and are themselves satisfied, there is naturally a difficulty in deal-
ing with them. But under the Housing of the Working Classes
Act of 1890 the duty is laid on the Medical Officer of reporting to
the Local Authority any dwelling-house unfit for habitation, and
then, if after a proper interval the houses be not made habitable,
it becomes the duty of the Local Authority to approach the
Sheriff for a closing order. This work will have to be gone
into in the course of the year, and is likely to occupy a good
deal of my attention and of that of the sanitary inspectors.

WATER SUPPLY.

In forming an opinion regarding the influence on the public
health of any particular water supply, a number of facts have to
be considered. But, speaking very generally, it may be taken
that the question which is likely to be of most consequence from
a sanitary point of view is, whether the source of supply is sur-
rounded by or is removed from human habitations; or, in other

  Transcribers who have contributed to this page.

valrsl- Moderator, CorrieBuidhe- Moderator