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(e) Restaurant and Hotel Kitchens.-In many of the smaller city restaurants particularly, the sanitary condition of the kitchen premises and the method of food preparation are described as disgraceful. Power should be given to ensure that all tables, floors, fittings and utensils, &c. are kept thoroughly clean, that all employees are clean in their persons and clothing, and that the premises are free from vermin. For this latter purpose all food should be stored in fly-proof safes, and bins should be provided for the reception of food scraps and waste. All plates, knives, forks, &c. should be cleansed with boiling water immediately after use."

4. Handling and exposure of Food in Shops.-Foodstuffs are commonly displayed inside shop windows and on counters without any attempt being made to prevent or even to reduce the risk of contamination. Such shops are always a source of attraction for flies, sometimes in swarms, and save perhaps for the inadequate protection of an occasional flypaper, nothing is done to prevent contamination of the food. When the shop floors are swept, clouds of dust are allowed to settle everywhere. Food on counters may be handled, or breathed, coughed, or sneezed on by assistants or customers. Exposed to these conditions some goods may lie for a considerable time in a shop, and then without even the safeguard of an intermediary cooking are eaten. Sticky confectionery is quoted as an outstanding example, and the dangers to the health of children, by whom this commodity is principally consumed, may readily be imagined. There is also the objectionable practice of many shopkeepers, particularly fruit and vegetable traders, of displaying foodstuffs at their shop doors. In addition to the ordinary sources of pollution there is added exposure to contamination from the dust and dirt of the street, from animals, and from contact with passers-by and customers. The remedy for all these conditions is stated to be the provision, so far as possible, of glass, muslin or transparent paper covers for all foodstuffs during their exposure in shops.

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Another unsatisfactory feature to which frequent attention is drawn is the method of storage of foodstuffs in what is known as the general" shop. On such premises the most heterogeneous assortment of articles may sometimes be found stored side by side as, for example, paraffin oil, butter, chemical manures, sweets, tins of sheep dip and vegetables. One or two reports even go so far as to suggest that the sale of foods from premises where other goods are kept should be prohibited.

Contamination of foodstuffs by handling in shops might be reduced a great deal by the more general use of forks, scoops, tongs, &c. Another highly objectionable practice adopted by many shopkeepers is that of wetting the fingers and blowing into paper bags. This is very undesirable, and might be largely avoided by the more general use of cartons.

The back storage rooms of many provision shops, particularly

those situated in old premises, are deficient from the point of view of ventilation, and a good many of them require to be made vermin-proof.

5. Dwelling-houses used as Shops.-The combination of foodshop and dwelling-house, not uncommon both in town and in country, represents one of the most unsatisfactory features of the present system of food distribution. As a rule these shops are on a very small scale, and are opened by widows or elderly people or by people who are out of work, as a means of eking out a livelihood. One of the means by which they exist is by opening on Sundays, a practice which is understood to deflect trade from the ordinary grocer's shop. The fact remains, however, that in such cases food must almost of necessity be sold under insanitary conditions, and while these small shopkeepers may claim a certain measure of sympathy, the prevention or removal of insanitary conditions must be the first consideration. Very often the sale of foodstuffs goes on in a back kitchen which is used as a living and sleeping room. In one case of a single-apartment dwelling the trade of confectioner was found carried on in an apartment containing two beds and occupied by three adults and three children. Only slightly less objectionable is the two-apartment shop where a dwelling or sleeping room opens directly off the actual shop premises.

The following are typical instances of what may be found in such premises :

(a) Front apartment used as a shop for sale of confectionery only. Confectionery in trays exposed on a board set over the sink. The room at the rear has two beds and is occupied by the householder, his wife and three children. The cooking is done in the front apartment where the confectionery is sold.

(b) Front apartment fitted as a shop for the sale of confectionery. During the summer months ices are also made and sold. It contains a sink at the window, over which the confectionery is displayed, and the cooking is done in this apartment. The room at the rear is a small apartment occupied by three persons.

(c) A shop where general groceries are sold. The back kitchen contains a boiler where meat and meat food products are cooked for sale in the shop. It is also used for storing groceries. Until recently milk was also sold in this shop, but this has been stopped on representations being made. to the occupier.

Cases are also referred to where sick persons were found lying in bed in the adjoining room, and where the persons attending them also served in the shop.

It is obvious that in the vitiated atmosphere almost invariably found in such premises, with the same person engaged in household work in the intervals of attending to the shop, foodstuffs must suffer a great deal of contamination. There is general

agreement that in the interests of public health the restriction and, except with proper precautions, the ultimate abolition of this class of shop, so far as the selling of foodstuffs is concerned, is desirable.

6. Street Trading. The food commodities forming the usual stock-in-trade of the street hawker are meat, fruit and fish. To some extent the position of meat has been safeguarded by the Public Health (Meat) Regulations, 1924, which require that no person other than a person keeping open shop shall sell meat unless he holds a certificate from the local authority that the storage accommodation provided is satisfactory. Apart from this limited provision, however, no direct powers exist for controlling a traffic in which most unsatisfactory conditions indisputably exist. In the first place the personal habits and cleanliness of the average street hawker are far from being up to the standard which may reasonably be required from a person engaging in the handling of food. Often drawn from the poorest section of the population, his home is generally a slum dwelling or a common lodging-house. His barrow or cart is seldom, if ever, cleaned, and the food is stacked on it without any protection from the dust and dirt of the street. The quality of the food is often very doubtful. There is the fruit hawker who attends auction sales and buys up cheap lots of fruit which for one reason or another are of doubtful condition and are "sold with all faults." There is the meat hawker who obtains scraps and residue from the wholesale meat firms and retails them from his barrow at a cheap rate. The frequent handling which such meat must receive before it finally reaches the consumer constitutes a considerable risk to health.

The gravest question connected with street trading, however, is the condition of storage. Some hawkers are not engaged in the food trade throughout the year, but may merely take it up temporarily during the fruit season or when other employment fails, and in such cases the storage accommodation is generally of a makeshift character. Even the regular hawker lives under conditions which render proper storage at home impossible. If he does take home his unsold fruit or fish, the chances are that it will have to be kept in a crowded sleeping-room, probably under the bed and alongside other articles such as dirty linen, &c. If on the other hand he seeks storage-room elsewhere, it too often happens that he can find it only in outhouses or stables, and in such cases disgusting conditions have from time to time been brought to light. One case may be cited, where it was found that fruit and vegetables were stored in an old ramshackle shed in which were two horses so badly affected with parasitic mange that one of them had to be destroyed. The work of handling and selling the fruit and vegetables was done by the persons attending to the mangy horses.

Generally the suggestion is made in the reports that the restrictions already in force as regards meat should be extended to cover all other foodstuffs dealt with by street hawkers.

7. Handling and exposure of Food in transit.-Efforts to improve the conditions of manufacture and storage of foods will be largely wasted unless at the same time precautions are taken against contamination during the transit of food from the manufacturer or wholesaler to the retail shop or from the latter to the consumer. It is the case, however, that many traders who maintain a high standard of cleanliness within their premises pay less attention to the question of food transit. Meat brought from the slaughterhouse to the butcher's shop is often insufficiently covered, and neither the cover itself nor the cart conveying the meat is always of the cleanest.

The following extract from one report, though admittedly it deals with an exceptionally bad case, is interesting as an illustration of what may happen :—

Thirty barrels of brambles (weighing 5 tons 17 cwts.) arrived in the city, but their condition was so apparently bad that the consignee immediately submitted them to this Department for inspection by the medical officer of health and myself. They were contaminated with the most heterogeneous mass possible to imagine. In the first place the barrels had originally been used for the storage and conveyance of motor oils, and then, minus the slightest attempt at cleansing, filled with the fruit-the oil plainly visible floating on the surface of the berries or mixed with them. When the barrels were being emptied, the inspectors observed the following mingled with the fruit :-corks, cigarette ends, cigarette boxes, rags, small bottles, tin boxes, vegetable and turnip parings, eggshells, wastepaper in considerable quantity, and a large onion. Notwithstanding that, the consignors considered they were entitled to half price for the consignment. Instead, the mass was mixed with ordinary farm manure and despatched to the country to fatten the land."

The methods of delivering to customers bread, rolls, meat, &c. might be considerably improved. Often these foods are sent out in open baskets or on the tops of vans without any protective coverings whatever. They are handled by the dirty hands of message-boys. The baskets are laid down at street corners while other messages are being delivered, and the contents may become contaminated by animals. The same remark applies to unsealed pitchers of milk left at house-doors for considerable periods. In some cases food is delivered by vanmen whose hands and clothing are contaminated by motor oil or by contact with horse. harness. The indiscriminate mixing of foodstuffs with other merchandise on wagons and barrows is another undesirable feature. Some reports urge that the wrapping of bread and fish in the shop should be made compulsory. At present apart from the wrapping of certain patent breads very little is done in this way by traders. The wrapping-papers should be clean papers only, and not newspaper, which is at present commonly used for wrapping-up purposes in fish and fried potato shops.

CHAPTER XIV.

WIDOWS', ORPHANS' AND OLD AGE CONTRIBUTORY PENSIONS.

1. Introductory.-A detailed account was given in the last Report of the structure and main aims of the scheme of pensions for which provision was made in the important Act of 1925. The scheme came into operation at the beginning of the year to which this Report refers. Much preparatory work had already been done before the end of 1925, and to this also reference was made in the last Report.

2. Position at 31st December, 1925.-The first stage in the introduction of contributory pensions was timed for 4th January, 1926. From this date compliance with the statutory conditions of title, and due observance of the requirements of the Act and Regulations in the matter of submission of claims, secured widows in the right to a weekly pension of 10s., with additional allowances for children, and orphan children in the right to a weekly pension of 7s. 6d., payable to the guardian or other person having charge of the child.

3. Pre-Act Widows and Orphans.-The strictly contributory principle of the scheme as it will operate in future had been waived by the Act to the advantage of widows with at least one child under 14, and of orphan children of the required age, at the date of its commencement. There was accordingly an immediate large influx of pensioners at 4th January, 1926. Their claims had been considered during the interval between the passing of the Act on 7th August, 1925, and the end of that year.

4. Number of pensions paid on commencing day.-By arrangement with the Postmaster-General, Tuesday was fixed as the weekly payment day for widows' and orphans' pensions. The first payment of pensions was due therefore to be made on Tuesday, 5th January, 1926, and the number of pension order books issued in time for payment to be received on that day was approximately 12,800. With the exception of a little more than 500, all these books were in respect of pensions for widows entitled, in view of the additional allowances for children, to a minimum weekly payment of 15s.

The scheme was smoothly inaugurated on 5th January, and the orders paid under the Contributory Pensions Act by Post Offices throughout the country represented four months' intensive application and activity.

5. Claims of pre-Act widows and orphans decided after the 4th January, 1926.-Notwithstanding the efforts made to persuade all persons entitled to claim pension from the commencing date to lodge their claims early, many had delayed till the last

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