How to secure them. 113 



In a large manufacturing city like Belfast, where there are 

 miles of streets composed of the houses of the working classes, 

 it is of the utmost importance that we should look to the 

 sanitary condition of our workers' dwellings. Belfast is not 

 so badly oflF in that respect as many other towns, but yet much 

 remains to be done towards removing the defects left us as 

 a legacy from the past. Had the founders of Belfast settled 

 about the skirts of Mac Art's Fort, as the old Danish founders 

 of Dublin settled around the Celtic fort on which now stands 

 the Castle, our Borough Engineer would not have so much 

 difficulty with the city drainage, and our Medical Superin- 

 tendent of Health would not be so anxious about the high 

 death7rate. The residents cannot now remove to the Cave 

 Hill, but they can do much eifective work towards removing 

 other defects left them from the past. Fortunately our 

 workers are fairly provided with self-contained houses, unlike 

 many of the houses in Dublin, where several families dwell in 

 one house — I have heard it said that in some cases several 

 families occupy one room. In one such case the members 

 of the little community got on very well, until one of the 

 families began to take in lodgers. Fortunately there is none 

 of this in Belfast ; every family can have a separate house, 

 imperfect as it may be in many respects. I have visited many 

 of the workers' houses, and have been shocked at the deplorable 

 condition of the surroundings, due, not only to structural defects, 

 but to the apathy and downright carelessness of the inhabitants. 

 This is our point A — Apathy, for which there is no excuse. 

 Every householder should protest against every form of struc- 

 tural defect, and aid the authorities in getting them remedied. 



Let us examine the structural defects, and they come directly 

 under point B — Business. The speculating builder often, with 

 a false economy, fails to provide the necessary appliances for 

 keeping the tenants' houses reasonably clean and health)^ 

 One serious defect is the manner in which the bell-trap and 

 cesspool below it are constructed. Most of the yards are 

 nominally trapped by this exploded contrivance. I say 



