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This matter was reported to the Government by Dr Ayres in 1874, in 1882 and again in 1890 by Mr. Osbert Chadwick and in 1894 the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board advised that in any Ordinance to be passed, the erection of blocks of houses back to back shall be absolutely prohibited, and that every house to be hereafter built shall be required to have at the back or one end of it, an open public scavenging lane.
In the same report we find it stated that "light and air are the best preservatives against plague", an opinion which we endorse most fully, and we say that until means are adopted to thoroughly and effectually light and ventilate the dwellings of the teeming population of this City, so long may we look to the recurrence of the scourge which has already cost the community so much, and which will, as long as its visitations continue, always seriously injure the prosperity of the Colony.
On the 16th July, 1896, the President moved at the meeting of the Board that no time should be lost in obtaining the necessary powers to enable the Board to clear backyards, lanes &c of every obstruction to light and air gaining free entrance to the dwellings of the people.
On the 27th August, 1896, at a meeting of the Board, a letter from the Colonial Secretary was read requesting the Board to furnish him with precise information as to the provisions which the Board desires to be inserted in the proposed Ordinance to further amend the Public Health Ordinance; it was agreed:
(1) That in all cases where encroachments on what were originally open spaces in the rear of domestic buildings can be proved to have taken place since the erection of such domestic buildings, the removal of such encroachments be made compulsory.
(2) That in cases where the kitchens extend throughout the entire width of the domestic building without the intervention...