The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-01-10 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDG-E OBSERVER.

ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC SANITARY

INSPECTORS.

A largely attended meeting of the Association of
Public Sanitary Inspectors was held on Saturday
evening at 1, Adam-street, London, Mr. jerram in
the chair, when a paper, entitled " The Growing Im-
portance and Responsibility of Public Sanitary In-
spectors Explained, and their Relative Improvement
in Education, Position, and Emoluments Considered,"
was read by Mr. Edward C.Robins, F.S.A., F.R.1.8.A.
(honorary member). The author of the paper com-
menced by expressing the satisfaction he had derived
from the establishment eighteen months ago of the
association of such useful public servants as the sani-
tary inspectors, and congratulated the members present
on the success which the association had already ob-
tained. He then stated that the awakening of the public
conscience to the necessity of grappling with the increas-
ing dangers, resulting from the enormous increase and
concentration of the population, and from long in-
difference and neglect of the commonest principles of
sanitary well-being, had at last been effected. In.the
movement to remedy these dangers the position of
the sanitary inspector had been the subject of much
discussion, and also of supplemental work in the
form of voluntary aid eommittees, and it had been
pointed out how the administration of the sanitary
laws in the different districts varied, as there was no
common "standard of habitability." 33ut whatever
the defects in the law or its administration might be, it
was the duty of its officials to make the best of them,
and it was astonishing how elastic and far-reaching
the sanitary laws could be made in the hands of an
earnest expositor. He then proceeded to refer in
detail to many of the nuisances and defects with
which the sanitary inspector was constantly being
brought in contact, and said that, as the latter
did not represent anyone but the great public,
his business was to see that the public health
was not endangered by neglect of the common
decencies of life, and so his knowledge must extend to
all the practical details that influence the -healthful
qualities of the air and water, that er.ter so largely
into the question at issue. Public and private drainage
and water supply must therefore be thoroughly well
mastered by him ere he can be fitted fot his daily work.
The importance of the office of sanitary inspector
.was
increasing with the growth of knowledge on the subject,
but no corresponding advance in his position had been
made. Their reports are not made to the authority
direct, their appointment or suspension is at the will
of those to whom the law has delegated the authority,
but whose authority is exercised at its pleasure, per-
missive not peremptory powers being too often the
excuse for not exercising them at all. Notoriously,
the largest owners of the property more especially
requiring the improvements suggested by the sanitary
Acts of Parliament are the members of sanitary com-
mittees and boards, occupying positions sought and
obtained for interested purposes in many cases, and
whose pecuniary bias is in opposition to the Acts they
administer. Is it to be wondered at that their
influence should be exerted to direct inspection any-
where but to their own ill-conditioned properties?
Is it to be expected that the medical officers, whose
services such men carefully retain as their family,
doctors, will voluntarily go out of their way to con-
demn them, even if they do not actually shield them?
It is to be expected that an inspector whose office
has been secured to him through the favour of such
an one, or more than one, would be likely to peach
where the property of his patron is in question?
The author of the paper then proceeded to
argue that such a state of things should be
altered, and that the sanitary inspector should be
made more independent of the local authority, and
that to entitle the inspector to the confidence of the
public educational classes should be organised by the
association, and that inspectors should be willing to
submit themselves for examination to some recognised
sanitary authority, whose certificate of competency
should have a distinct money value. He also enter-
tamed the opinion that they were deserving of in-
creased emolument. At the conclusion of the read-
ing of the paper, a discussion ensued, in which the
following gentlemen took part: Messrs. Rees, James
Bateman, C.E., E. R. Boulter, F. J. Poulson, W.
Rains, G. S. Sherborne, Middlewick, H. Alexander,
G. Hurlock, and the chairman. The usual votes of
thanks were then accorded the author of the paper
and the chairman, and the proceedings terminated.