View report page

duty of the Sanitary Authority to take steps to secure the abatement of
all such nuisances. The necessary steps have been taken in many instances
(especially since October. 1893) by the Sanitary Committee, to which your
Vestry have entrusted the carrying out of the provisions of the Factory
and Workshop Acts, 1878 to 1895, and the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891 ; all of which entail responsible duties in regard to workshops
and workplaces, upon your Vestry as the Sanitary Authority.
And here it may be worth while to specify some of the sections of
of the Acts which confer powers and entail duties on the Sanitary
Authority, in respect of workshops, workplaces, &c. ; or which provide,
otherwise, the means whereby the requirements of the law shall be
enforced in regard to such places, in default of action by the Sanitary
Authority. These are the Factory and Workshop Act, 1891, Section 3
(2) which gives a Sanitary Authority and their officers ' all such powers
of entry, inspection, taking legal proceedings, or otherwise.' as a factory
inspector has under the 'principal Act' (i.e., the Act of 1878). The
Factory and Workshop Act, 1878, Section 4, which requires notice to be
given by a factory inspector to the Sanitary Authority of sanitary
defects in a factory or workshop ; it being the duty of that authority
to take such action thereon as may seem proper for the purpose of
enforcing the law. The Factory Act, 1891, Section 4 (2) which confers
on a Sanitary Authority power to require the owner or occupier of a
workshop, to limewash, cleanse, or purify the same, or part thereof, as
the case may require. The Public Health (London) Act, 1891, Section 2
(1) (g) which declares to be a ' nuisance liable to be dealt with summarily
under this Act,' any ' workshop or workplace which is not kept in a
cleanly state and free from offensive effluvia ; or which is so overcrowded
as to be dangerous to the health of the persons employed
therein': and Sections 23 and 26 of the same Act which confer powers
on the Sanitary Authority with respect to workshops (and bakehouses)
to secure limewashing, cleansing, &c. The powers thus conferred on
the Sanitary Authority, in regard to the inspection and supervision of
workshops, &c., for the purpose of enforcing the law, would appear to
be ample. But lest these powers should be allowed to fall into desuetude,
or be wilfully neglected, power is given by sections 1 and 2 of the
Factory and Workshop Act, 1891, which enables the factory inspector
to supersede a defaulting Authority in the execution of their duties in
respect of workshops or laundries ; and to recover from the Authority,
in whose district the workshops or laundries are situate, ' all such
expenses in and about any proceedings as he may incur."
It only remains to add that your Vestry referred to the
Sanitary Committee the above report for consideration, with
the result that the Committee prepared a report on "the