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71
memorial to the Secretary of State; and practically the whole of the recommendations then
made are embodied, more or less effectively, in the new Act, which came into force at the
beginning of the present year.
The provisions which more particularly concern the Council are the following:—
Part 1.—Division (1), Sections 1-9.—"Health."—Overcrowding of Factory or Workshop.—Section
3 (3) enables the Secretary of State, by a Special Order, to substitute a higher
number of cubic feet of space (than 250 for each person), in any workshop or workplace occupied
by day as a workshop, and by night as a sleeping apartment, and not being a domestic workshop.
[It may be questioned whether such double occupation of a workshop-room should
rightly have been countenanced.]
Temperature.— Section 6 (Clause 30 of the Bill) enacts that in every factory and workshop
a reasonable temperature shall be maintained, and the measures taken to secure this must
not be of a character to interfere with the purity of the air in any room in which any person
is employed. [This section, in effect, prohibits the use of unventilated gas burners for securing
warmth, at the cost of vitiation of the air. Successful efforts to prevent the use of gas jets for
warming workrooms in this borough, date back to 1893, when lady inspectors of workshops, etc.,
were first appointed. The section is administered by the factory inspector and not by the health
authority.]
Ventilation.—Section 7 (Clause 15 of the Bill) makes provision to secure means of ventilation
of a workshop, etc., and for the maintenance of sufficient ventilation; and a workshop in
which there is a contravention of the provisions of the section will be deemed to be a nuisance
liable to be dealt with summarily under the law relating to Public Health.
Bakehouses*—Part Y.—Sections 97-102 (Clause 28 of the Bill) deal with this business.
Section 101 (1) enacts that "an underground bakehouse shall not be used as a bakehouse unless
it was so used at the passing of this Act"; and (2) that, subject to this provision, after January
1st, 1904, " an underground bakehouse shall not be used unless certified by the District Council to
be suitable for that purpose." Sub-section (3) defines the meaning of the expression "underground
bakehouse," and (4) prescribes the conditions necessary to make an underground bakehouse
"suitable" to be certified, as regards "construction, light, ventilation, and in all other
respects." Power of appeal, by complaint to a court of summary jurisdiction, against the refusal
of a certificate by the Council, is given by (7), which enables the court to override the decision
of the sanitary authority, by granting a certificate of suitability. Section 102 provides for the
enforcement of the law as to retail bakehouses by the sanitary authority.
Laundries.—-Clause 26 of the amending Bill not having been passed, the provisions of
existing legislation as regards laundries, re-enacted in section 103 of the new Act, will continue
in force until the Government shall have fulfilled their pledge to deal with the subject at an
early date. One improvement in regard to laundries may possibly have been effected, indirectly,
by section 8 (clause 15 (2) of the Bill), which enacts that in any room in a "factory or
workshop in which any process is carried on which renders the floor liable to be wet . . .
adequate means shall be provided for draining off the wet." Should this provision apply to
the case of laundries (the expression "process" causes doubt), it will strengthen the hands
of the Council by enabling them to require, when necessary, the drainage of washhouse floors,,
in workshop laundries, and so to deal with an evil at once common and detrimental to the
health of the workers.
Outworkers.—Part YI.—Section 107 (Clause 9 of the Bill) provides that copies of the
lists of outworkers in certain trades, required to be kept by the occupiers of factories and
workshops and others, shall be sent by the occupier to the Council of the district, half-yearly
(instead of to the Factory Department, as formerly); and requires the Council to "furnish
the name and place of employment of every outworker in such list whose place of employment
is outside its district, to the Council of the district in which his place of employment is."
Places Injurious to Health.—Section 108 (Clause 11 of the Bill) enables the Council of
the district to give the notice in writing mentioned in section 5 of the Factory and Workshop
Act, 1895, relating to the employment of persons in places dangerous or injurious to health.
The Act of 1895 authorised a factory inspector (the new Act forbids him) to give such notice;
the giving of such notice is discretionary, and the provision can only be applied in the case
of persons employed in such classes of work as the Secretary of State may specify by Special
Order.
* See Report on legislation with reference to Bakehouses, page 78.