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153
PUBLIC HEALTH (LONDON) ACT, 1891 ;
BYE-LAWS, Etc.
The subject of sanitary legislation, which occupied so
large a space in my report for 1891, calls for little notice on
the present occasion, nothing of importance having been
added to the Statutes in the Parliamentary Session of 1893.
But since the date of my last report your Vestry's bye laws
and those made by the County Conncil, under the provisions of
the Act, have been confirmed by the Local Government Board
and are now in force. The duty of enforcing the Council's
bye-laws devolves upon the Sanitary Authorities. Some of
these bye-laws, relating to drainage, have formed the subject
of a report by your Vestry's Surveyor, as they deal with
matters provided for in your Vestry's, " Rules as to the
construction of house drains etc.," which will have
to be revised, in order to bring them into conformity with
the requirements of the said Bye-laws. Whilst on the
subject of bye-laws, I should like to say that it would be to
the public advantage were the Council to exercise their power
to frame uniform bye-laws with regard to the construction
of drains, under the provisions of section 202 of the Metropolis
Local Management Act, 1855, for the guidance
of Sanitary Authorities throughout the metropolis. The
section in question enables the Council, " from time to
time," to " make, alter, and repeal bye-laws . . (c) for
regulating the dimensions, form, and mode of construction,
and the keeping, cleansing, and repairing of the pipes, drains,
and other means of communicating with sewers, and the
traps and apparatus connected therewith." For thirty-eight
years this power has been in abeyance. It would be to the
public interest that the question should receive the Council's
consideration, and I suggest that the Council be recommended
to exercise this power by making the necessary byelaws.