The London County Council has commenced its economies in a
most injudicious way. The Sanitary Committee recom- mended that a Medical Officer of Health should be appointed, with a salary of £1,250 a year. This officer will be the chief sanitary authority of the Metropolis, will control all sanitary inspectors, and will be chief adviser as to all hygienic improve- ments. His whole time will be occupied by his duties, and he is forbidden to practise or to accept any other employment. As he ought to be a man of experience and authority as well as ability, the salary suggested seems low ; but the majority of the Council deemed it too large, and succeeded in cutting it down to £1,000 a year. An effort was made and defeated to limit it to £750, and Messrs. Saunders and Burns even proposed to reduce it to £500 a year, the latter observing that he never saw the man in his life who was worth more than that sum. The Council seem wholly un- aware that an incompetent sanitary adviser may cost them thousands a year in wasted precautions, while a man of high ability may enable them to diminish not only the death-rate, but the sick-rate of London, the latter a matter involving millions a year to the population. This is the spirit of the Co-operative Societies, which frequently lose thousands a year by their refusals to pay adequate salaries to buyers and the like. They have an idea that no man ought to receive more than £300 a year, and cannot see that the man with brain- power has an effective voice in settling the contract.
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