“SPRING CLEANING.”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1913, Page 2

“SPRING CLEANING.”

THE SPREAD OF DISEASE

PRECAUTIONS FOR THE PUBLIC SAFETY.

Further particulars’fit'connection with the Health Department’s suggestion to Licensing Committees with regard to the “spring-cleaning” of hotels were obtained locally yesterday, 'when the 1 Stratford Licensing Committee held their monthly meeting. The District Health Officer (Dr. Herbert Chesson) wrote conveying a resolution passed at the conference on tuberculosis recently held in Wellington : “That it be a recomhiendation to the Licensing Committees that periodical cleansing of hotels be, carried out.” As this was a matter which greatly concerned the health of the travelling public, lie would recommend that the Committee should make it a condition to the granting of a license that, in addition to the ordinary daily cleansing, all bedrooms and liv-ing-rooms should, be thoroughly springcleaned at least once a month—i.e., floors washed with soap and water (the latter containing some antiseptic solution), and the w r alls and furniture rubbed down with rags damped with the same. Further, that all bedroom windows be kept open as much as possible, at least during the daytime, and certainly after occupation on the pfeVious faight.

Mr Kenrick expressed sympathy with the aims of the conference and thought that the precautions were very wise ones to take, and worthy of the attention of licensees. The police would report prior to meetings' 1 ah to the conditions of hotels, and the Committee would know how far the licensee was endeavouring to carry out what the Health Department expected of him. So far as following out these suggestions exactly was concerned, he said, in some cases licensees might not be able to do so. At the same time, he noted that some licensees were already carring out such precautions as suggested by the Department. They would, however, have a report from the police as to whether the hotels were clean.

Sergeant McNeely said it had always been a part of the police duty to look after these things. At the same time, the Public Health Department had an inspector, and that inspector was an expert. He (the speaker) was not. “However,” he said, “I would not like, to ask a licensee to wash down his walls with .antiseptic, and I am quite pertain the, Committee will not ask,' a man to dp that.” Mr Kenrick: No, ( not in this climate. Sergpaiit McNeely: It, would sow the seeds of rather than cope with the spread of the disease. Mr Kenrick: Personally, I think that hotel walls should hot be covered with paper, but with something which would allow of their being properly i cleansed. -•

Mr Stanford suggested that the Health Department were misusing the Licensing.)■'Committee', in this matter. It was 'iioi) right that the Department ■should ask.(the:Committee to withhold a man, ! s-license because the Department’s Requirements were not parried out. The .Health Department had its own machinery/jand [licensees should be proceeded against ■by the Department in the same manner as were private individuals. 7 . Mr Kenrick did not concur with Mr Stanford. ’The Department had two courses open to them, and could please themselves which course they preferred to adopt. The matter was one which certainly concerned the Licensing, Committee, * and was one tv hi eh the Committee had power to deal with.