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In the year 1879, 520 were surveyed and registered by myself and after certain alterations received certificates, and at the close of 1880 the number had risen to 564, not including those registered at Driffield, Hull, Mirfield, Leeds, or Doncaster. There still remain a number used as habitations requiring examination and registration, which avoid coming within the district at such times when they may be called upon to show their certificate, and thus escape the observation of the inspector, where one is appointed as well as an examining officer.

There has been no general unwillingness to obey the law, and by the use of a little tact, much information as to canal life may be obtained.

When surveys have been made and requirements pointed out by me as a surveyor and examining officer under the Act, as a rule, they have been attended to, and on the whole fairly executed; only where poverty has been pleaded and existed, and in one or two exceptional cases, has there been any resistance to the authorities or tardiness in obeying the requirements. Indeed captains and their wives very often are desirous for the beneficial changes, whilst they are prevented representing their need, from fear of offending owners unwilling to expend money on their ships.

The Aire and Calder Navigation have used their great influence in the Goole district towards furthering the operation of the Act and have materially conduced to its effective working. In most cases it was found, when first surveyed, that alterations had to be made in the boats to meet the requirements of the Act, and I venture to suggest that more extensive ones than even the Act requires would be attended with good results.

The cabin space was almost in every case too small for the number of people inhabiting it; the means, if any, adopted for ventilation insufficient, and the arrangements of the fittings defective.

The sleeping accommodation was rarely indeed what could be desired, or deemed even decent, and frequent occurrences of overcrowding and cohabiting prevailed.

The most suitable of any of the cabins for human habitation were those on vessels devoted to the carrying of ammoniacal liquor, these being placed on deck; but before this had been adopted the evil and danger of defective ventilation had been shown by the death of several people, who were asphyxiated in one of the beneath-deck cabins, by the vapours, which filled the place in which they slept, having had no means of exit. I would not say it is

practicable to put all cabins on deck, as they would prevent a passage through low bridges or tunnels. I have observed in Salop and Staffordshire, men, women, and children, lying on their backs pushing boats through tunnels. In many of these districts there are no other means of propulsion available, or any steam tugs of which the chimneys can be lowered.

The Aire and Calder Navigation have powerful steam tugs between Goole, Leeds, and Barnsley, and I have frequently seen 10 or 12 keels fastened to one tug, representing 800 or 900 tons, travelling at the rate of 4 or 5 miles an hour including stoppages. I only wish this system was general, whereby frequent cruelty to horses from boat hauling would be avoided, and many poor footsore children would escape the brutality they often meet with, Since the application of the Canal Boats Act, very great improvements have been introduced into the structure and contrivance of these dwelling places, but there are still defects existing even under the working of the Act, to which I wish to refer.

The floors and sides of the cabin are frequently found so far defective as to allow moisture and noxious vapours from the bilge to penetrate, and to make the beds and the other lockers musty, damp, and offensive.

I am of the opinion that great attention should be paid to the state of the linings with regard to this danger, and that suitable linings, having a ventilating cavity, would be of great advantage.

So also with regard to the bulkheads separating the cabin from the cargo where cabins are below deck, if hollow bulkheads were universally carried water-tight to the bottom of the hold, not only would the living places be kept drier in case of carrying a wet cargo, but better ventilation might be secured, and greater comfort and safety, when carrying noxious goods, such as decomposed and fermenting shoddy, scutch manure, bones, hides, and even in some cases rotting fish. After, as well as at the time of the carriage of this description of cargo, I am persuaded that no little danger to health is incurred, where provision has not been made to obviate it.

The boat laden with dung or other offensive and wet substance, if of wood, has her timbers partially soaked with the liquor oozing from the cargo, and the bulkheads separating it from the cabins may be saturated, and long after the boat has been discharged the fermenting moisture may be emitting a poisonous vapour into the bed or food lockers or other inhabited part adjoining the hold.

The bulkheads of vessels chiefly carrying this kind of cargo might be lined with suitable cement or metal, or otherwise protected from the infiltration of offensive liquid, and I think that, more especially in new boats hereafter to be built, they should always be continued to the bottom and sides of the boat, forming a watertight section.

It would also be a useful precaution if under the wooden floor of the cabin there was required to be laid a cement or concrete floor, cutting off all emanations and vapours which might rise. Provision should be made for the ventilation of bilges.

The Act requires that the cabin should have all painted surfaces thoroughly cleansed and renewed once in every three years, but considering the purpose for which some of them are used this would be better done as frequently as the examining officer or inspector finds it necessary.

I may here mention that in several instances where the captain has been the owner of the boat great taste for cleanliness has been displayed, also in decorations, bright chimney ornaments and painted panels on lockers of flowers or landscapes, and in some instances ferns are grown in these homes, lending a very pleasing appearance. Owners of such boats as these frequently have homes ashore, and the children are sent to school.

The bedding in these confined spaces has always a tendency to become damp and stuffy, and I think that any regulations that would prevent the bed flooring being a fixture would be an advantage; it should be made to take out or turn up. The mattresses ought to be more frequently removed, and the bed-clothing aired before being replaced. Anything which will secure this being done is beneficial. Communication between bed-locker and bilge is very objectionable, as any casual oscillation of the vessel would stir up the stagnant liquid in leaky ships, and the gases be sent direct to the sleeping or living compartments, berths, &c.

I think bed-lockers require special consideration, and an effectual method of ventilating these sleeping places would do much to secure a more healthy condition to the inmates.

Although the air space required by the Act is by no means excessive, it is very often found to be diminished by the measurement of that occupied by the fittings, as clear air space, and this is very frequently aggravated by unauthorised additions to the furniture or clumsy alterations of that already fixed after inspection. I have not unfrequently met with close sliding or folding doors to

the bed-lockers, and am of opinion that they should not be allowed unless special and ample provision were made (as I have said before) for the efficient ventilation of the bed space. The doors of the lockers should not completely close the openings either at the top or bottom, in order that a circulation of fresh air may continue through the space and drive out the foul air at a suitable point when they are so closed, and this arrangement should also be adopted for other lockers which may contain food, &c.

Happily only two cases have come within my knowledge of infectious disease on board "canal boats" within the Goole district, but those of ordinary sickness have not been rare, and then the ordinary provision of clear air space seemed in many instances very insufficient, the usual occupants continuing to dwell and keep their food in the same cabin with the patient.

Both before the operation of the Act, and since it has been in force, instances of births occurring on board have come to my knowledge, and the inhabitants (of both sexes) still remaining and sleeping in their usual beds, little or no alteration being made in the usual arrangements, although for the sake of health and decency they were evidently required.

An instance which came to my knowledge immediately before the passing of the Act, will serve to show how necessary regulations had become from both moral and sanitary points of view:-On one of these boats, occupying the same small cabin, lived a man, his wife, and two adult unmarried daughters, and these latter had born in the cabin, at almost the same time, each an illegitimate child, the whole continuing to sleep as best they could in the one room. It transpired that when the parents were drinking, or on a “drunken bout" (a local phrase) at any of the various stations, these girls took charge of and navigated the boat, with such chance assistance as they could get on the way.

The provisions for the separation of the sexes made by the Act are difficult of enforcement, and the difficulty varies as the construction of the boat. Continual cases have come before my observation of their being infringed.

Of course a state of miscellaneous overcrowding is not so common now as it was previous to the application of the Act, but still it does occur and is difficult to entirely prevent under the existing arrangements.

The master's family is frequently increased, after his receiving his certificate, by the return "home" of some of the younger

members who were absent at the inspection of his boat; a visitor has been entertained, and actually cases of a lodger being taken in are not unknown. I have reason to believe that misdemeanants are sometimes hidden in these places.

Again, a new master may be put on board (and changes of owners and captains very frequently occur) who, having a larger family than the last and making no report, escapes the inspector.

The exercise of powers similar to those of the Lodging Houses Act, and occasional prosecutions for offences of these kinds, injurious to health and morality, would be likely to check or to put a stop to these practices. Instances have been known of the registration plate being changed.

When a change of captain occurs, a clause making it compulsory for him to report himself at his registration district, would be most useful.

Children bred and born in these floating homes, are with difficulty traced to any school of instruction, and indeed it is hard to see how this could be perfectly accomplished, as the boats travel from station to station, or from isolated landing places to pit loading stage, carrying their population with them, very little more easy of compulsion, so far as education goes, than any tribe of wandering gipsies. I shall at a subsequent period endeavour to cope with this existing difficulty.

The young on board many of these boats cannot escape the danger of being brought up without civilised instruction, exposed as they are to the influences of evil example, swearing, foul language, intemperance, prostitution (and if this be bad in a house, what must it be in the cabin of a boat?), and to frequent imposition of labour for which they are not always fitted.

The cabins of canal boats, from necessity in trade, are compelled to become the habitations of men and women, but it is to be deplored that they should ever be made the homes of girls or young children, and especially when these are of both sexes huddled together.

Perhaps as regards their education, matters might be improved, were the age and sex of every child required to be endorsed on the certificate (I have generally done this on those that came under my own hands) with a full statement, which could be verified, of the means provided for their instruction ashore, in accordance with the spirit of the Elementary Education Act.

Sunday sailing of course removes them from much chance of

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