The total amount of the loans sanctioned for these purposes during the year was over £4,000,000, principally for extensions of existing systems. Most of the work to which this large sum will be devoted has, of course, only just begun, and will take a long time to complete.

PUBLIC CLEANSING.

Sanitation.

The practice of dumping refuse in a crude state often gives rise to insanitary conditions. In some instances, the Local Authority dispose of their refuse by dumping it in their own district, but in other cases the refuse is brought into the district by outside Authorities. This practice prevails especially in the neighbourhood of London. The dumps are mostly on a large scale, are sometimes untended and uncovered, and give rise to nuisance by fires, smell, flies, rats, etc. Several of the Metropolitan Borough Councils deal with their refuse by dumping it in this way either directly or through contractors.

Complaints in regard to nuisances arising from such dumps have been received by the Department, and, although in some instances remedial measures have been taken at their suggestion, it is recognised that such measures sometimes do not adequately deal with the trouble.

The great difficulties incident to the disposal of refuse are recognised by the Metropolitan Borough Councils, and a representative committee appointed by those Councils to consider the question has recently presented a report in which the disposal of refuse by a process of utilization is favoured.

A few of the Metropolitan Borough Councils and some of the larger provincial municipalities have installed systems of utilization, thereby securing a saving to themselves and a benefit to the public health.

Cost.

The great cost to the public of the collection and disposal of house and trade refuse is not generally recognised. In some cases the cost of the Cleansing Department ranks in the accounts of a Corporation second to the cost of the Education Department. In the whole country the annual cost of the collection and disposal of refuse approximates to £6,500,000.

When it is realised that the rise or fall of 1s. per ton in the cost of refuse collection and disposal is equivalent to an estimated public expenditure or saving of about £400,000, it will be appreciated that it is of the utmost importance that Local Authorities should scrutinise most carefully their methods of collection and disposal in order to effect economies.

The expert officers of the Department are ready to confer with Local Authorities who desire to make improvements in collection and haulage and in methods of disposal, and thus to secure savings; and this was done during the year in many cases with excellent results.

One means of economising is by keeping adequate cost accounts, and much still remains to be done in this direction. Measures have already been taken with a view to settling the form of costing accounts which should be kept. An incidental advantage would be that true comparative costs for different towns would thus be obtained instead of the misleading figures which are now sometimes used.

DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON SMOKE AND NOXIOUS VAPOURS ABATEMENT.

This Committee (which was a reconstitution of a Committee appointed by the President of the Local Government Board in 1914, whose work was suspended by the War) was set up in January, 1920. The Committee reported in December, 1921, and its main recommendations are as follows :

1. The legal provisions under which action may be taken for smoke nuisance should be amended, and the Department should be empowered to prescribe standards for dealing with the emission of industrial smoke.

2. The obligation of enforcing the law should be placed on County and County Borough Councils; at present it is on County Borough and Borough Councils and Urban and Rural District Councils.

3. The Department should be empowered to act in default of a Local Authority.

4. The Minister should assign to one or more competent officers the duty of advising and assisting Local Authorities.

5. The Alkali, etc., Works Regulation Act, 1906, should be amended in the manner set out on page 38 below with a view to the closer control of manufactures entailing the production of noxious vapours.

The Report has been under the sympathetic consideration of the Department, and arrangements have already been made for expert advice to be available from the Department to Local Authorities and others.

On the 24th March, 1922, the Minister received a large and influential deputation on the general question, and promised to introduce, or, if that was not practicable, to support, a Bill on the lines of the Committee's recommendations.

ALKALI, ETC., WORKS REGULATION ACT, 1906.

Alkali and other Inspection.

The Report of Dr. Lewis Bailey, Chief Inspector under the above Act, contains detailed information as to proceedings under the Act during the year 1921, and is issued separately as a Stationery Office publication. The following are statistics of works, processes, and tests for the last two years :

The unusual conditions prevailing throughout the country have made the work of inspection more than ordinarily difficult, and plants have been worked under quite abnormal conditions. The principal reasons for the reduction in the number of tests made during 1921 were that practically all the arsenic works in Cornwall were idle, many units of other plants were worked intermittently, or not at all, and a full staff of inspectors was not available throughout the year.

The number of complaints received during the year has not been large, and 50 per cent. of these were found, on investigation, to relate to works which did not come under the Act. No legal proceedings were taken during the year for offences against the Act.

The demand for sulphuric acid has been comparatively small during the year, and operations have been on a considerably reduced scale. The "ammonia oxidation" method of providing oxides of nitrogen for sulphuric acid chambers is extending. Sulphate and muriate of ammonia works have been carried on under very adverse conditions, partly owing to the results of the coal strike and also to the high price. of sulphuric acid.

Much activity has been displayed during the year in perfecting methods for the production of a dry neutral sulphate for agricultural

purposes.

Dr. Bailey reports at some length on the "treatment of effluent spent liquors from the distillation of ammoniacal liquor." This is a subject of much importance because of the noxious effects of these liquors and the difficulties of disposing of them, difficulties so great that some works have had to be stopped in consequence. The investigations should, therefore, prove of great advantage, and are being continued. Dr. Bailey concludes from those already made that the noxious effects arise chiefly from phenoloid bodies rather than from cyanogene compounds, as was generally supposed, and, working on this basis, promising results have been obtained in reducing the ill-effects of the liquors and thus facilitating their disposal.

Recommendations of Departmental Committee as to Noxious Vapours

Abatement.

The Departmental Committee on Smoke and Noxious Vapours Abatement recommended that the Alkali, etc., Works Regulation Act, 1906, should be amended so as to apply generally to all manufactures from which noxious vapours might come; that a list of such noxious vapours should be included in the Act, with power to add to it; that the Minister should be empowered to fix standards with regard to noxious vapours; and that a general obligation should be placed on every manufacturer of using the best practicable means for preventing the escape of noxious or offensive vapours.

CANAL BOATS ACTS, 1877 AND 1884.

The Report of Mr. Owen J. Llewellyn, the Department's Inspector under the Canal Boats Acts, is printed as Appendix III (pages 143 to 145 below).

Mr. Llewellyn states that the canal carrying trade has been adversely affected by the adoption of shorter working hours by persons employed in connection with the trade on shore.

For the first time for many years no prosecution under the Acts and Regulations has been reported, and it is satisfactory to note that very few cases of infectious disease have occurred on the boats during the year.

Many boats previously registered under the Canal Boats Acts have, since the passing of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1921, been registered or are likely to be registered under the Merchant Shipping Acts. Boats so registered are no longer liable to inspection under the Canal Boats Acts. The advisability of issuing a declaration under section 10 of the Act of 1884 with a view to bringing these boats again within the scope of the Canal Boats Acts is under consideration.

The Departmental Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. Neville Chamberlain appointed to consider the question of living-in on canal boats completed its work in May, 1921.

The Committee reported in favour of the exclusion of children of school age from canal boats during the term times of the schools which they are attending, and of an annual registration of canal boats used as dwellings.

Very careful consideration has been given to the recommendations of the Committee, but the present time is not considered opportune for the introduction of legislation to give effect to them.

Housing.
GENERAL.

During the year 1921-22 the housing problem has entered upon a new phase.

Difficulties due to the shortage of capital, labour, and materials, which, in addition to the administrative problems inherent in the inauguration of a comprehensive policy, were the main obstacles to be surmounted in the first two years of the Government scheme, have tended to diminish. On the other hand the cost of building had, during the previous year, risen to such a height as to make it imperative in view of the general financial position to limit the amount of building to be undertaken at the expense of the Exchequer. At the same time it was hoped that such limitation, in conjunction with the general tendency to deflation in the price of commodities, would in due course secure such a reduction in the cost of working-class houses as to pave the way for the resumption of unsubsidised building by private enterprise.

Moreover, while the position as to the supply of labour for housing schemes had at the beginning of the year under review considerably improved, owing largely to the falling off in commercial building due to industrial depression, there remained a marked deficiency in some of the essential branches of skilled building labour, notably among plasterers, which exercised a determining influence on the amount of new work which could advantageously be put in hand if the desired end of obtaining as many completed houses as possible within a reasonable time was to be achieved.

From the beginning of the financial year, therefore, a policy was adopted of limiting new commitments. Authority for the erection of additional houses was given only after careful consideration of the relative needs of each area, the proportion of those needs which would be met by the programme already authorised, the progress to date, the availability of the necessary skilled labour, and the prices obtainable by competitive tenders for small numbers of houses.

That success has attended this policy is demonstrated by the fact that whereas during the preceding financial year the average of accepted tenders was £944 for parlour type houses, and £855 for non-parlour types, the average prices accepted came down from £798 and £697 in April 1921, to £513 and £436 in March of this year, while during March tenders of £450 and £378 have been obtained and further decreases are anticipated.

There has undoubtedly been throughout the year a constant improvement in the conditions which has rendered possible a more rapid rate of building under the Government scheme, and full advantage has been taken of this improvement, as is evidenced by the fact that the total number of houses completed during the year (100,923) exceeded by some 30,000 the average output of working-class houses by the building industry during the ten years before the war.

At the same time the conditions have been such as to suggest that the causes which dictated the financial policy embodied in the Acts of 1919 (expressly adopted as an emergency measure for a limited period) are ceasing to operate.

In July, 1921, the Government found it necessary to review fully their commitments under the housing scheme, looking to the very grave financial difficulties confronting the nation for the remainder of the financial year and throughout the following year, owing to the unparalleled and world-wide depression in trade and the industrial troubles which had so seriously affected both expenditure and revenue.

It was decided that for the time being, at any rate, the number of houses to rank for assistance under the existing scheme must be limited to 176,000, that being the number built, building, or for which tenders had been approved. An undertaking was given that all expenditure which had already been incurred by Local Authorities with the approval of the Department would rank for financial assistance under the scheme limiting the liability of Local Authorities to the produce of a penny rate, and that where work undertaken by Local Authorities, with the approval of the Ministry of Health, could not for reasons outside the control of the Local Authorities be completed by July, 1922, the time for completion would be extended by the Department as might be necessary.

The operation of the scheme of subsidy to private builders was also limited to houses begun before the 1st July, 1921, under a certificate, or the promise of a certificate, by a Local Authority, but discretion was reserved to pay grants in cases where commitments had already been entered into if work were started by the 25th August. The total number of houses in respect of which preliminary certificates were issued by Local Authorities was 42,114.

At the same time, recognising the urgent necessity of making what improvements are possible under present financial conditions in slum areas, the Government undertook to provide an annual contribution