The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-06-18 00:00:00

BRIERLEY HILL LOCAL BOARD.

A monthly meeting of the above Board was held
on Monday at the Town IE4II. Mr. J. Skidmore
(chairman) presided, and there were also present
Messrs. W. Waldron, T. Fereday, E. Browning, E.
Grove, D. Rollinson. M. Rollinson, W. Alumni!),
R. Thompson, S. Bennett, T. Edwards, E. B. Guest
G. Mantle, H. Carder, and G. Griffiths.
In reply to a question, the Deputy Clerk (Mr.
Price) said application had been made to the Pub-
lic Loan Commissioners for the loan of £20,000 for
paying purposes, and the committee was now only
waiting for the Local Government Board to sanction
the km.

It was agreed, upon the motion of Mr. Waldron
that, as soon as their Lordships' sanction was re-
ceived, a special meeting
.of the Board should be
called to consider the question.
The Sanitary and Gen.:rat Purposes Committee
recommended tha, the owners of property in Fen-
ton Street have hotice to connect the drains from
their premises with the main sewers. It was fur-
ther recommended, with reference to the proposed
improvements in Fenton Street, that an agree-
ment for the performance of the work be entered
into with the owners of property there who had
consented to allow the improvements to be carried
out, subject to an independent valuation, and that
the compulsory clauses of the Act be not enforced
except against those owners who refused to comp',

with the wishes of the Board, the improvements ,o
be commenced forthwith. It was also recom-
mended that a thorough disinfection of the di,;-
trict be made. The report was adopted.
The clerk received instructions to write to the
South Staffordshire Waterworks Company, reques'-
ing them to lay their mains in all the streets in the
district which at present are not supplied with
their water.

The recommendations contained in the report of
Dr. Parsons, the Local Government Board inspect, r
made last year, and about which a letter was now
received from the Local Government Board, was
read. The Board considered that as far as practi-
able the recommendations in the report had been
arried out.

A lettE•r was received from Met•srs. Trotter,
I us, and Corbet*, a local firm of brick maim-
ft...turers, to the effect that certain portions of the
paving contract had been given to a firm, the mem-
bers of which were non-ratepayers, and stating thut
they thowdht some of the members of the Board
Lad overlooked some of their public responsibili-
ties.

Considerable discussion took place upon the sub-
ject of the letter, and ultimately it was decided
that the clerk should reply to the writers of it,
stating that the course adoted wa4 one agreed
upon by the majority of the Board, and they con-
sidered thems lves justified in the course they had
taken.

The Medical. Officer of Health (Dr. Ashmead)
reported that 18 deaths had occurred during the
month. A systematic inspection of Bank Street,
Talbot S:reet, and Albion Street had been made,
and on the whole their sanitary condition was
found to be satisfactory. Dr. Ashmead ale) sub-
mitted his annual report, which stated that the
death-rate for the year 1880 was 2048 per 1,000
of a population of 11.275 persons. The number of
deaths had been 231, and of births 469 ; the rate of
the latter having been 41-5. In 1879 the death-
rate was 19-46, and in that year the death-rate of
zymotic diseases was 2-7 as compared with 4'7 per
1,000 last year. The number of deaths last year
of children under one year of age was 81, and under
five years 56. An epidemic of scarlet fever had oc-
curred in Silver Street, in June last, which affected
the death-rate. Efforts were made to subdue it,
and in July an inspection of the whole district was
made and sanitary remedies applied. In August
the number of deaths diminished, and in the foltow
iug month n,)t one death from sca,Aet fever was '
registered. With the establishment of filtering
beds, a more perfect systez ef drainage would be
iaauzurated, which- would tend to the better health
of the district, and secondly, to the diminutien of
zymotic diseases. One of the causes of the spread
of scarlet fever in Silver-end and the neighbour-
hood was the freedom with which the inhabitants
mixed with each other. During the house-to-house
inspection which was made, mothers with children
in arms were found paying visits to and gazing on
children that were sick with the fever, and in one
house where a child had died from the diszase, the
parents—who were in receipt of parochial relief—
having drawn soni kraal m-filey out of a death
club in which the child was insured, wished to keep
the corpse for a week so that they might in-
site their neighbours and have a lage funeral.
The Finance Committee recommended for pay-
anent accounts amounting in the ag,fregate to £426,
and reported that there was a balaiwe of .2307 3s
lid in the hands of the treaiurer. The report was
adopted.