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During the year a less amount of house-to-house
inspection was earned out than in 1894. Statutory notices for
the abatement of nuisances, to the number of 764, were issued
by order of the Sanitary Committee. The written intimations
of nuisances served by the Inspectors, under section 3 of the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, numbered 1,598. As a
result of these intimations, works necessary for the abatement
of nuisances were carried out, in a large number of cases, without
the delay involved in waiting for the service of the
statutory notice, thus realizing the intention the Legislature
may be supposed to have had in view in passing the section.
There has been an improvement in respect of the attention
paid to your Vestry's notices since the Public Health Act of
1891 came into operation. In my report, for 1892-93 (pp-128-133),
I described, under the heading " Sanitary Works and
Legal Procedure," the system introduced for giving effect to
the provisions, and executing the powers conferred by the Act;
and I particularly adverted to the diminished frequency with
which we had had to invoke the aid of the magistrate—only 36
summonses having been issued in 1892-93, compared with 122
in 1891-92—as a result of the adoption of the plan of sending
a courtesy notice to persons in default, calling attention to the
serious penalties imposed by the Act, and urging, with a view
to the avoidance of further proceedings, immediate compliance
with the requirements of your Vestry. The same success has
attended a continuance of the practice in the past year, some
102 of these final notices having been sent out, with the result
that it became necessary in 18 cases only, to have recourse to
the Petty Sessional Court. At the same time it must be said
that the issue, in every one of these 102 cases, of the so-called
"final notice"was an evidence that the persons towhom the notices
were sent, had failed even to begin the works necessary for the
abatement of the nuisances to which they related, the result
being great loss of time of the Inspectors, who make repeated
visits to ascertain if required works have been put in hand, as
well as to supervise the works when once begun, I must further