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10
Government
Enquiry
In the case of Norfolk House the owner has appealed to the
Court of Quarter Sessions and an opportunity will now be
afforded of seeing the delay which can be caused by a litigous
person unless some terms be come to.
From time to time during the year 1885 the local officers of
the Mansion House Council on the Dwellings of the Poor
lodged a number of complaints with regard to alleged sanitary
defects existing on various premises in the Hamlet.
The complaints were investigated and such proceedings as
the Vestry were advised they could legally and properly adopt
were taken.
These did not satisfy the Council, who ultimately lodged
complaints with the Local Government Board, and in the
result the Home Secretary appointed Mr. D. Cubitt Nichols as
an Inspector, to hold an enquiry into the immediate Sanitary
requirements of the Hamlet.
The Home Secretary invited the Vestry to appoint two
gentlemen to sit with the Inspector on the enquiry and the
Vestry accordingly appointed Messrs. F. J. Wood and H.
Cushen, but owing to illness the former was unfortunately
unable to be present.
The enquiry was opened on the nth of January, 1886.
Several days were taken by the Inspector and Mr. Cushen,
accompanied by the Medical Officer and local Hon. Sec. of the
Council, and by the Surveyor, the Acting Medical Officer of
Health, the Inspector of Nuisances and the Chairman of the
Sanitary Committee of the Vestry, in inspecting the properties
complained of.
On the 18th January there was a public sitting held at the
Vestry Hall, at which Mr. Thomas, (Barrister), appeared for the
Mansion House Council, and Mr. Jutsum, the Clerk to the
Vestry, for the Vestry, and several witnesses were examined,
after which the enquiry closed.
In March, 1886, Mr. D. Cubitt Nichols made his report,
which is rather a lengthy document, and the Vestry have not
considered it necessary to cause it to be printed, as a copy can
be obtained, as a Parliamentary paper, from the Queen's Printers,
at the small cost of 1½d.

After stating the contentions urged in respect thereof by
the several parties, Mr. Cubitt Nichols gives his own views
on the several matters, which may be shortly summarised
thus:—