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shops Regulation Act was passed, which legislated for similar
establishments, where less than fifty persons were employed, and by
it the enforcement of the law as to hours of labour and sanitary condition
in workshops was (like that of the bakehouses) entrusted to
Local Authorities and Officers of Health. Unfortunately an opinion,
not justified by the wording of the Act, gained ground amongst
Sanitary Authorities, that they were at liberty to please themselves
whether they should enforce the law or not in their respective
districts.
Many Town Councils, when called upon by the Home Office to
carry out the law expressed their determination "not to meddle with
trade matters in their Parishes." The published reports of the
Home Office Inspectors for 1868 and 1869 show that the Workshops
Regulation Act was a dead letter throughout nearly the whole
Country, though in a few districts of Staffordshire and Leicestershire
the best results were obtained through the indefatigable activity of
the Municipal Officers.
The difficulties arising through the neglect of the Local Authorities
in carrying out the Workshops Regulation Act, induced Parliament
in the year 1871 to pass another Factory Act which completely
transferred the duty of enforcing the provisions of the Workshops
Act from the Sanitary Authorities to the Home Office Inspectors,
and the 1878 Factory Act did the same thing for the bakehouses.
This comprehensive law, though essentially a consolidating Act, may
be said to mark an epoch in trade legislation, for by it the Sanitary
administration of factories, workshops and bakehouses was definitely
placed in the hands of the Home Office Inspectors to the practical
exclusion of Local Authorities.
The experiment of entrusting the supervision of the smaller manufacturing
industries to the Local Authorities appeared to have failed,
and for the following reasons:—
1. Too much was expected. The regulation of the hours of
labour, overtime, school attendance of children, and holidays
are not matters for a Sanitary Authority to deal with.
2. The machinery necessary to work the law did not exist.