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the relief of the poorest classes of the labouring population. It is a question, moreover, whether
they will do much for the artisan classes of London. The schemes have this merit, that, being framed
on "commercial lines," they will, after the lapse of a certain number of years, endow the Council
with extensive freehold estates and towns, of which the occupiers of the houses will have paid the
cost in their rents. Payments of the same rents, as an investment, would probably, in a moderate
number of years, suffice to endow the tenants of such-like houses with the freeholds.
By-laws for Houses let in Lodgings.—The negotiations with the Local Government Board
with reference to the proposed new by-laws, commenced some years ago, have not yet been
completed, the result being that no houses were placed on the register in 1903. The number now on
the register is 2,050. The existing by-laws, framed in 1885, have worked satisfactorily; but a need
for some modification of them has recently arisen as the result of decisions of the High Court
(King's Bench Division), to the effect that certain by-laws made by the Stepney and the Islington
Metropolitan Borough Councils, with regard to the cleansing of houses let in lodgings, are invalid as
they do not provide for notice to be given before action is taken.
In the first of the cases referred to, Stiles v. Galinski, the appellant was a sanitary inspector
of the Stepney Borough Council, and the respondent a landlord within the meaning of the by-laws
in force in Stepney as to houses let in lodgings. At the Thames Police Court, on 23rd June, 1903,
an information was preferred by the appellant against the respondent, that he, being the landlord of
a lodging-house, did not in the first week of April, cause every part of the premises to be cleansed, as
required by the by-laws in such case made and provided. In this case the magistrate dismissed the
summons. In the second case, Nokes and Nokes v. the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of Islington,
the appellants were the landlords within the meaning of the by-laws, the information preferred was
similar to that in the first case, and the magistrate sitting at the Clerkenwell Police Court convicted
the appellants, and fined them 10s. and costs.
The Lord Chief Justice, in delivering judgment in both cases, stated (inter alia) that in his
opinion the by-laws were bad because they did not provide that the persons who were made
responsible for seeing that the things were done, should receive the necessary notice. In his
opinion, the by-laws in both cases required remodelling, with the point of view not of removing the
liability of the landlord, but of giving him notice before subjecting him to penalties. Mr. Justice
Wills was of the same opinion with regard to the by-law not providing for notice being given to the
person made responsible. Mr. Justice Kennedy agreed that the by-laws could not be supported
for the reasons given by the Lord Chief Justice.
The appeal in the first case was dismissed with costs. The appeal in the second case was
allowed with costs.*
The by-laws which were the subject of the above decisions, were made under section 94 of
the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, which provides that every sanitary authority shall make and
enforce such by-laws as are therein specified, as to houses let in lodgings. Section 114 of the Act,
provides moreover, that all by-laws made by any sanitary authority under the Act, shall be made
subject and according to the provisions with respect to by-laws contained in sections 182 to 186 of
the Public Health Act, 1875 ; and under section 184 of that Act, the by-laws require the approval of
the Local Government Board. The Council's by-laws, made by the late Vestry, and approved by
the Local Government Board, in 1885, are to the like purport as those above adverted to, but were
made under powers conferred by now repealed Acts, the provisions of which were re-enacted in the
Act of 1901. They make no provision for notice to be given, as now ruled to be necessary; notice,
however, is invariably given, but this fact does not give validity to the particular by-laws. The
defect should be cured by amended by-laws as soon as practicable, seeing that notices for the
periodical cleansing of houses let in lodgings cannot be enforced, legally, under the by-laws as they
now stand.
Common Lodging Houses.—The County Council in 1894, took over from the police the
supervision of common lodging-houses, under the circumstances set out in my annual report for
1893 (p. 207). I am indebted to the Council's Medical Officer of Health for the subjoined return
of the common lodging-houses in this borough, which are 29 in number, and contain accommodation
for 835 persons.
* a full report of these cases, and of the judgments pronounced by the Court, is set out in my first monthly report for 1904,
cage 6, together with an account of the Council's by-laws, and the procedure adopted in giving effect to them.