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authorities at Spring Gardens. I am sure that the refusal to register
houses is in no sense an attempt on the part of the Vestry to evade
the statutory obligation to abate insanitary conditions in the district,
but is the result of a conscientious conviction, arrived at after
anxious consideration by men who are fully acquainted with local
conditions. I respect this opinion, as I know it to be an honest
one, but I cannot agree with it, as I contend that a practical attempt
should have been made to work the regulations with a view to ascertain
what they are worth.
With reference to this dispute between Bethnal Green and Spring
Gardens, the Public Health Committee of the London County
Council recently submitted the following report to the Council:—
"On the 5th December last the Council, on our recommendation,
decided to make formal complaint to the Local
Government Board under Section 101 of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, with a view to the Board putting in
force the provisions of that Section in order to compel the
Vestry of Bethnal Green to make valid bye-laws as to
houses let in lodgings, or to appoint the Council to perform
the duty. The circumstances which led to the Council
taking this action are briefly as follows: On enquiry being
made by the Medical Officer, under our instructions, as to
the extent to which bye-laws relating to houses let in lodgings
were being enforced in the several sanitary districts
of London, it was found that in a number of districts the
bye-laws remained practically a dead letter. After correspondence
with the authorities of these districts, it was
decided by the Council to make complaint to the Local
Government Board, in the first instance, in the case of
Bethnal Green, as the Vestry of that Parish had not registered
or required the registration of any houses under its
bye-laws. The Local Government Board, however,
decided that the Vestry did not appear to them to be guilty
of default in enforcing the bye-laws, inasmuch as the byelaw
(No. 2) as to registration allowed the Vestry discretion