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I do not think much good is going to be effected by the
transference of the powers of the Sanitary Authorities for
smoke abatement to the County Councils, since the reason
of the failure of the Smoke Clauses in the Public Acts is
not altogether due to unwillingness of Sanitary Authorities
to enforce the law, but to the difficulties adherent in the
present enactments. In order to abate smoke in the first
place it must be "black," and that leaves too much room
for interpretation. If the word "black" is omitted you must
have some degree of smoke for which a manufacturer can be
prosecuted, and this again leaves much room for individual
opinion. I think, however, that there should be some alteration
in the present law in the direction of defining the kind
of smoke for which a manufacturer can be prosecuted, and
also for increasing the penalties. I do not see any objection
to County Councils having co-ordinate powers with us on
the question of smoke abatement, for the more inspectors
there are making smoke observations the more careful will
manufacturers be not to allow smoke. As regards the more
important question of domestic smoke, the problem is mainly
an economic one. Until there is a cheap smokeless fuel, equal
in efficiency and price to ordinary coal, placed on the market,
there seems little chance of doing away completely with the
domestic coal fire. Of late years there has been a great
increase in the use of gas and electricity in London, and the
improvement produced thereby is very noticeable in the
diminution of the severe fogs which used to occur regularly
about November some 25 years ago. There is no doubt that
this points the way to reform in the matter of domestic
smoke, and every endeavour should be made to encourage
the use of gas and electricity for cooking and heating, and
at the same time to discourage the use of raw coal for the
same purpose. Experiments have shown that coal can be
partly converted into coke by heating in retorts, utilising the
by-products that are driven off and converting the residue
into a coke briquet. This results in a smokeless fuel, but