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feet. For instance, if 400 were adopted for all purposes and two children under
10 years reckoned as one adult, it would be possible to place on record in the
Register the maximum number that a room and a house would be permitted
to accommodate. This number would then be constant instead of continually
varying, according to whether rooms are used for living or sleeping purposes,
the variation often rendering the original records in the Register valueless, so
Jar as numbers are concerned, almost as soon as entered.
This single minimum standard would have a further advantage, since a
house may be overcrowded as to its sanitary convenience, etc., as well as in
regard to its cubic space, and it would be possible to fix the amount of sanitary
convenience required to accommodate the maximum number of persons
dwelling in the house.
But it would be desirable to go even further than as suggested above, in
defining by statute the minimum amount of cubic space per head permissible
in dwelling-houses. This has already been done with regard to factories and
workshops in section 1 (1) of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1895, as set
out in the earlier part of this Report, parallel with the By-laws as to cubicspace.
The advantage of this course would be that it would apply to all
dwelling-houses, and if the minimum standard were fixed as low as at present,
it would prevent that degree of overcrowding of human beings which should
be abated wherever met with, and it is greatly to be regretted that the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891, does not define what is "overcrowding" in
dwelling-houses.
Cleansing.—If, as suggested, the minimum amount of cubic space per head
were fixed by statute for dwelling-houses, then, except that of differentiating
the duties of landlords and tenants respectively, the only definite point remaining
to be enforced by the By-laws would be that of annual cleansing. This
point also might with advantage be made applicable to all dwelling-houses by
statute, if it were provided that, where, in the opinion of the Sanitary
, Authority, on account of the mode of occupation or of usage, a dwelling-house
should be cleansed annually, the Sanitary Authority may pass a resolution and
make an order to that effect, and be empowered to enforce the order.
Procedure.—The difficulty of procedure before Magistrates is to convince
Magistrates that defects proved to exist are nuisances within the meaning of
the Public Health (London) Act, 1891. Definite statute law or By-law
facilitates Magistrates going through the process of being convinced, and also
relieves them of the responsibility of deciding what is and what is not a
nuisance.
The London County Council appear to desire Sanitary Authorities to proceed
without giving notice. The St. Pancras By-laws appear to preclude this
possibility, but even if the Vestry were desirous of the officers proceeding
without giving notice, and therefore without the instruction of the Health
Committee or the Vestry in each individual case, still there would be some
risks in so proceeding.
The owner has to be ascertained or confirmed in each case before proceeding.
A tenement house not unfrequently changes hands, and if there be a new