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anew the business of tallow melters. They have unlawfully carried
it on contrary to the provisions of the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891, Section 19, Sub-section 1. The Greenwich Borough
Council is, under Section 29, the authority primarily charged with
the duty of enforcing the Act, but in the exercise of their discretion
they refrained from taking action. In the course of last year
the London County Council drew the attention of the Greenwich
Borough Council to the nature of the defendants' business, and
suggested that it was being carried on in breach of the Act.
After some correspondence the County Council, on the 4th of
December last, wrote that their Public Health Committee had
taken up the matter, and resolved on the facts before them that
there was sufficient reason to institute the proceedings suggested
by the London County Council. Accordingly the latter body
took these proceedings in pursuance of the provisions of Section
100 of the Act. A preliminary point had been taken by Mr.
Clarke Hall, but has not been strongly urged, that the London
County Council were not properly authorised to institute these
proceedings, but Sub-section 9 is as follows: "Nothing in this
Section shall render the order of the London County Council
necessary to authorise the slaughter of cattle at the Metropolitan
Cattle Market, or at the Cattle Market at Deptford, or shall
authorise the making of any by-laws affecting either of these
markets or slaughterhouses erected there, either before or after
the passing of this Act." In my opinion that Sub-section does not
limit the operation of Sub-section A, which simply forbids the
establishment of certain trades with reference to the slaughtering
of cattle, or the by-laws of the London County Council. The
material facts of this case are as follows:—
In 1901 the defendant company established in the Deptford