View report page

66
manufacture of wearing apparel is to be kept up to not less than
60 deg. Fahrenheit. Section 36 of the principal Act, which
provides for fans for dust-causing processes, is to be extended
to processes by which gas, vapour, or other impurity is generated
and inhaled by the workers to an injurious extent.
The remaining clauses (Miscellaneous Amendments) deal with
returns of persons employed, time of employment, overtime in
Turkey red dyeing, employment in shifts, particulars respecting
the computation of wages in certain cases, notice to Inspector of
occupation of workshops, and lists of workers whether in the
factory or workshop or outside of it, evidence as to failure to
limewash, powers of the Inspector, re-examination of young
persons and children by Certifying Surgeons, service of documents
on owners, payment of costs by actual offender in lieu of
occupier under Section 87 of the principal Act, right of Inspector
to prosecute, &c., the application of the Factory Acts to Ireland,
interpretations, the repeal of certain sections of the Acts of 1878
and 1891, etc.
The amendment of greatest interest and importance to
Sanitary Authorities and their officers is perhaps that in clause
47, authorising the Factory Inspector to conduct any proceedings
under the Factory Acts before the magistrates. This clause
goes further than section 1 of the Act of 1891, which gives the
Inspector power to prosecute for breach of sanitary provisions
in respect of workshops. For such procedure it is proposed that
the Inspector need not be a counsel or solicitor. In the section
in question and its intended extension we have both a striking
example of centralization and a probable cause of friction from
duplication of officers under different authorities to do the same
duty.
The schedules, three in number, specify the protective regulations
proposed for adoption in certain factories, scales of fees
for Certifying Surgeons, and certain enactments repealed.