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Common Lodging Houses and Casual Wards.
(8) That the local authority should have increased control over common lodging houses, their keepers, and
occupants. Thus the local authority should have power—
(а) To medically examine the inmates.
(b) To detain and isolate persons exposed to infection and to disinfect them and their clothes.
(e) To temporarily close a common lodging-house in whole or in part, compensation to be given to the keeper
of the house.
(9) The local authority should have power to order the keeper of a common lodging-house in which there has
been infectious disease to refuse fresh admissions for such time as may be required by the authority.
(10) That the local authority should be empowered to require medical examination and disinfection of all persons
entering casual wards.
(11) That the local sanitary authority should have power to require the removal and isolation of any inmate
of a casual ward who may reasonably be suspected of being liable to convey infectious disease.
(12) That the local authority should have full power to require the cleansing of the person and the disinfection
of the clothes of any person in a casual ward, whether infected or exposed to infection.
Labour Bureaux.
(13) (a) That the time has arrived when the Local Government Board should promote legislation for the establishment
of labour bureaux in the areas of every county council and every county borough council.
(b) That this Conference is also of opinion that it is desirable that a national voluntary agency should be formed
for assisting bona fide working men while travelling through the country in search of work, and that such agency should
be worked on the same lines as the Inter-Cantonal Union of Switzerland for the relief of poor travellers.
(14) That the unemployed travelling bona fide in search of work, not being habitual vagrants, should not be
treated as vagrants, but as far as possible be assisted to obtain employment.
Labour Colonies.
(15) That the time has arrived when the Local Government Board should promote legislation for the establishment
of labour colonies for the compulsory detention of habitual vagrants until they have acquired power to work
and self restraint.
(16) That this Conference approves and affirms the resolutions passed by the executive council of the Association
of Poor Law Unions in England and Wales at their meeting in September, 1003, as follows:—
(а) That boards of guardians should be grouped in suitable areas to provide labour colonies for vagrants.
(b) That such colonies should be established and governed by the joint committees of the boards of guardians
of the unions in the said areas.
(c) That habitual vagrants should be sent to such labour colonies by magistrates.
(d) That the expenses of each colony should be spread over the unions in the areas served by such colonies.
Children of Vagrants.
(17) That the powers of the poor law guardians under the Poor Law Acts of 1889 and 1899 to assume and
exercise, in certain circumstances, parental rights over the children of pauper parents, should be extended so as to confer
similar rights over the children of habitual vagrants.
Generally.
(18) That, in order to give practical effect to the foregoing resolutions, this Conference is in favour of uniting
with the County Councils Association, the Association of Municipal Corporations, the Association of Metropolitan Borough
Councils, the Magistracy, and the Association of Poor Law Unions of England and Wales for the following purposes, viz.:
(a) To enlist the sympathy and co-operation of members of Parliament; (b) to appoint representatives to wait on the
Local Government Board; (c) to give evidence before the Inter-Departmental Committee of the Government on the
Vagrancy Question; (d) to take such other measures as may be thought desirable in support of the resolutions arrived
at by the Conference.
That a Committee be appointed to give effect to this resolution.
The London Equalisation of Rates Act, 1894.
The Equalisation of Rates Act provides that the London County Council shall in each year
form a fund equal to a rate of sixpence in the pound on the rateable value of London. The contribution
from each parish to the fund is to be in proportion to its rateable value. The fund thus formed
is to be distributed among the sanitary districts in proportion to their population. Where a sanitary
district comprises two or more parishes, and the aggregate of the contributions from such parishes is
less than the grant apportioned to the district, the difference shall be paid out of the fund to the sanitary
authority of the district, and no payment towards any equalisation charge shall be required from any
parish in the district.
Subject to the above, when the contribution from a parish is less than the grant due, the difference
shall be paid out of the fund to the sanitary authority of the district forming or comprising the parish;
and if it exceeds the grant to the parish, the Council shall, for the special purpose of meeting the excess,
levy on the parish a county contribution as a separate item of the county rate.
Every sum paid to a sanitary authority must be applied in defraying the expenses of the sanitary
authority incurred under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and so far as not required for that
purpose those incurred in respect of lighting, and so far as not required for that purpose those incurred in
respect of streets, and where the sanitary district comprises two or more parishes the sum paid must be
apportioned among such parishes in proportion to their population, and the amount apportioned to each
parish credited to each parish in the reduction of the rate required from such parish towards the abovementioned
expenses.
The sanitary authority is required to render annually to the Local Government Board a return
showing the amount of the sum to be paid and the total expenses incurred in respect of the three subjects
mentioned.
If the Local Government Board, under section 101 of the Public Health (London) Act, are
satisfied that the sanitary authority have been guilty of such default as in such section mentioned,