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that a fine of £20 can also be inflicted as in proceedings under
the Public Health Act, but it is doubtful whether the Court has
power to inflict a daily penalty in the event of the order not
being complied with, and it is important to notice that it does
not appear to be at all clear that either the £20 or the daily
penalty, if there is power to inflict this, would go to the Council
in the same way as it would under the provisions of the Public
Health Act.
So far, then, it would appear there is good reason, having
regard to the past experience of the Council in these cases, for
not departing in the present case from their previous practice of
taking proceedings under the Public Health Act.
It might be urged that there is one great advantage in
taking proceedings under the Housing of the Working Classes
Acts, and that is, the Council would have under these Acts
power to order the demolition of the property- Admitting that
there might be cases in which it was desirable to put this power
in force, there does not seem to be any ground for saying that
if the proceedings were taken under these Acts in the present
case the Council could exercise any such power, because the
conditions on which the power depends does not appear to exist.
Under these Acts the Council can order the demolition of
buildings unfit for human habitation, for the following reasons
only : that is to say, where a closing order has not been cancelled,
and the Council are of opinion that the premises have
not been rendered fit for human habitation, that the necessary
steps are not being taken with due diligence to render them
so fit, and that the premises or any part of them are dangerous
or injurious to the health of the public or the inhabitants of
neighbouring houses. All these conditions must exist, and the
failure of one of them would imply that the Council could not
exercise the power in question.
This power appears to have been intended to meet the case
of buildings so dilapidated as to be a source of danger to passers
by in any thoroughfare adjoining them, or to the inhabitants of