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The first recommendation, was that application be made, for authority—
"Enabling the Council to prohibit the supply, within the county, of milk from a dairy
within or without the county, if the medical officer is of opinion that infectious disease is
caused or is likely to be caused, by the consumption of such milk; enabling the Council to
prohibit the supply within the county, of milk causing or likely to cause tuberculosis; providing
for appeal against the decision of the Council in the above matters; enabling the
Council to require dairymen to supply lists of their customers and the sources from which
their supply of milk is derived; authorising or requiring the Council, according to the
nature of the case, to allow compensation in the event of a milk supply being prohibited;
enabling the Council to take samples of milk within the county; providing for penalties
against persons who knowingly sell, or suffer to be sold, or used, for human consumption
within the county, the milk of any cow which is suffering from tubercular disease of the
udder; imposing upon dairymen within the county an obligation to notify cases, or suspected
cases, of tubercular disease of the udder; requiring the isolation of any cow suffering
from such disease; enabling the Council to take samples of milk arriving at railway stations
in London, and metropolitan borough councils to take samples of milk elsewhere, and
enabling the Council and metropolitan borough councils to deal with milk which on
examination appears to be so filthy as to be unfit for human food."
Milk for the food of Infants.—The second recommendation was that application be made
for authority—
"(ii.) Empowering metropolitan borough councils, at their discretion, to provide and sell,
in their respective districts, milk for the food of infants."
The Committee based this recommendation on the fact that at the Conference of representatives
of metropolitan borough councils," On the Administration of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891," convened by the Council, in July, 1904, a resolution (which I had proposed),
was passed as follows:—
"That, having regard to the declining birth-rate, and the large infantile mortalityrate
of the metropolis, it is desirable that the metropolitan borough councils should be
empowered, at their discretion, to provide, in their respective districts, depots for the
preparation and sale of sterilised and humanised milk for the food of infants, and that the
London County Council be requested to insert a clause in its General Powers Bill for the
session of 1905, to confer such power upon the said borough councils."
The Committee stated that the Council having invited the City Corporation and the metropolitan
borough councils to submit their views on this resolution, the correspondence which ensued
"resulted in a general approval of the proposal to confer powers upon those bodies to maintain
milk depots." Depots at Battersea and Lambeth, respectively, have been established by the
Councils of those boroughs, and the expenditure entailed has been surcharged by the Local
Government Board auditor; but the Board in each year have remitted the surcharges. In this
connection it will be remembered that in the session of 1905, a Bill, designated the Milk Depots
(London) Bill, having for its object the establishment and maintenance by the metropolitan
borough councils of milk depots, was introduced by Mr. T. Lough, now Parliamentary Secretary
to the Board of Education, and that the County Council "approved the principle of the Bill,
which, however, did not become law."
The Council, moreover, will remember that in 1902, I brought this subject to their attention
in the tenth report (October 8th, p. 190), which was referred to the Public Health Committee, who,
after giving the matter careful consideration, reported as follows—
"We are of opinion that it would be a desirable thing to establish in the Borough
a municipal supply of sterilised and humanised milk for the feeding of children of the
poorer classes, in the hope that it might tend to the diminution of the excessive
mortality which does, without doubt, exist in a certain portion of North Kensington.
We recommend—
"That the Council do endorse the opinion above expressed, and that it be referred back
to the Committee to consider and report as to what steps should be taken to give effect
to the proposal."
The report of the Committee was not adopted by the Council.
OFFENSIVE BUSINESSES.
The only business coming within the statutory description "offensive," other than that of
a slaughterer of cattle, carried on within the Borough, is that of a Fat Extractor, at Tobin Street,
Notting Dale. In connection with this factory, a certificate of inhabitants, under Section 21 of the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, was received, and, at the instance of the Public Health