HH62/2/RENFRE/3

Transcription

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cal Officer in Scotland, as the result of circumstance rather than of
deliberate intention, has become the administrative health officer of
the rural districts, with but a slender relation to the County Council.
In some counties, where the districts are difficult of access and tra-
verse, the services of the Parochial Medical Officers have been re-
tained; in other cases, deputy or assistant medical officers have been
appointed, to act under the County Medical Officer in particular di-
visions of the county.
It seems to me, although it may appear presumptuous to say
so, that the Scottish Local Government Act was not a thoroughly
thought-out measure, more especially in its public health rela-
tions. In particular, it is defective in that it leaves the relations
of the County Councils to the Police Burghs altogether undefined.
I am, of course, speaking generally, and without any reference
to the circumstances of Renfrewshire. The smaller burghs are
now the weak point in the sanitary organization of Scotland. In the
body of my report I have remarked that it is axiomatic that 'the
smaller the unit of sanitary administration, the less efficient.' The
Police Burghs are too small to be efficient as units of sanitary admin-
istration. Again, in a good many counties the landward (sanitary)
districts which have been created under the Local Government Act,
while admirably adapted for the local administration of the Roads
and Bridges Acts, are too small to be efficient in the administration
of the Public Health Acts. All this would be remedied if in the
amending Act, which is already admitedly required, means were
adopted for drawing closer the relations between the County Councils
and the Police Burghs and District Committees. In this way would
be rendered impossible a condition of affairs, whereby, in the centre
of a county in which the larger towns and the other landward dis-
tricts have adopted the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act, the In-
fectious Disease (Prevention) Act, the Public Health Acts Amend-
ment Act, or other Acts the adoption of which is optional, there re-
mains a small burgh or district in which none of these measures have
been adopted, and which serves as a distributing centre of disease;
whereby in one district of a county one code of Dairy Regulations is
in operation, in the next another; whereby burghs and landward
districts are left to squabble amongst themselves as to the construc-
tion and upkeep, or ownership, of hospitals. In this connection I
may be permitted to congratulate the District Committees of the
County upon the harmony which has prevailed in Renfrewshire -

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which has secured one uniform system of sanitary administration
over the county; while the Notification system, the Dairy Regulations,
and the Lodging-house Regulations, have been brought into opera-
tion simultaneously, and on identical lines, all over the County land-
ward.
I should like to refer to one other point which will require atten-
tion, when the question of a new Local Government Act comes up
for consideration. I have already remarked that small burghs are,
generally speaking, inefficient in respect of sanitary administration,
not to speak of other points; petty burghal administration is also
relatively extravagant, in respect of the maintenance of a separate set
of officials. Still, if a considerable village is to be made reasonably
habitable, it has no other course open to it than to constitute itself
a burgh. A system of public lighting (which is necessarily by vol-
untary assessment) has a constant struggle for existence, and is never
sufficient; there can be no public system of scavenging; the foot-
paths, in wet weather, are puddles, unless the proprietor ex-adverso
chances to be more public-spirited than usual; new houses are run
up by jerry-builders, over the building of which no one has any con-
trol - it is only after they have been sold, when complaints of damp-
ness or bad smells have been made, or some one has died of diphtheria,
that the Local Authority, too late, comes upon the scene. Already
several County Councils have had these matters under consideration.
The following are the terms of a resolution on the subject adopted
by the Stirlingshire County Council:-

'That the Secretary for Scotland be petitioned to introduce a Bill
amending the Local Government (Scotland) Act, to enpower County
Councils: (a) to define areas for lighting, cleansing, and paving roads
or streets (in populous places) and to assess therefor; and (b) to ex-
ercise the functions of a Dean of Guild Court in controlling the
erection of buildings as far as the site and sanitary arrangements are
concerned.'

I respectfully commend the matter to the consideration of the
County Council.
In presenting this report I may be permitted to express my sense
of the extreme kindness which has been extended to me by the mem-
bers of the County Council and the District Committees, individually
and collectively. The work of the year was anxious and arduous, as
will sufficiently appear in the body of the report, but it was rendered
comparatively easy, and extremely pleasant, through the consideration