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182
'(1) The position and construction, including lighting and
ventilation of bakehouses ; and
' (2) The periodical cleansing of the premises ; and
' (3) The materials and utensils employed in the manufacture
of bread.'
" In the following year (1882) your Vestry entered warmly into a
movement to secure bakehouse reform, a primary step in that direction
being the transference to the Sanitary Authorities of the duty of inspecting
and regulating bakehouses. A communication was addressed
to those Authorities explaining the views of your Vestry on the subject,
as summarised in a report by the Sanitary Committee, which
embodied my views, as set out above. The Society of Medical
Officers of Health, moreover, resolved, on the recommendation of
the council, to memorialise the Home Secretary, ' praying that the
powers originally possessed by the Metropolitan Sanitary Authorities
under the Bakehouse Regulation Act, 1863, should be restored to those
bodies, with power to make bye-laws regulating the structure of bakehouses,
periodical cleansing, power of entry at any time, the utensils
used in manufacturing bread or pastry, and also such other matters as
the Local Authorities may deem necessary.' A memorial was subsequently
presented, the terms of which were in close, if not in literal
agreement with the subjoined draft which I prepared, showing:—
' 1. That prior to the passing of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1878, the
Sanitary Authority in the Metropolis (as elsewhere) was the Local Authority
under the Bakehouse Regulation Act, 1863.
' 2. That under the said Bakehouse Regulation Act the Bakehouses in the
Metropolis were regularly inspected by the Sanitary Inspectors of the respective
Parishes and Districts, and the sanitary provisions of the Act,
however imperfect, were duly carried out.
' 3. That on the repeal of the Bakehouse Regulation Act by the Factory and
Workshop Act, 1878, the duty of inspecting bakehouses was transferred to
the Factory Inspectors.
' 4. That from insufficiency in the number of Inspectors available for the duty,
or other cause, official inspection of bakehouses, as a regular and systematic
proceeding, has practically ceased since the passing of the Factory and
Workshop Act, 1878.
' 5. That as a consequence of such practical cessation of official inspection, the
bakehouses have fallen into an insanitary condition, as testified, in respectof
some of them, by Assistant Inspector Lakeman (vide Annual Report for
1881 by the Chief Factory Inspector) ; and, generally, by Reports presented
to Vestries and District Boards of Works by Medical Officers of Health and
Sanitary Inspectors, after inspections made by such officers as a result of the
revelations published in the said Annual Report of the Chief Factory
Inspector.