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130
would put a check upon overcrowding in the district. Rut
although substantial fines were imposed upon Keepers and
lodgers alike, for the double offence of overcrowding and indecent
occupation, subsequent "surprise" visits revealed a
similar state of affairs in two houses, one of them being the
property of one of the keepers fined in respect of a previous
offence. Proceedings were taken, and two penalties of forty
shillings each were imposed upon the keeper, and two of ten
shillings each upon the lodger: one of the keepers had not
long previously been fined six pounds for allowing underground
rooms to be occupied after notice to discontinue the illegal
occupation of the said rooms. By direction of the Committee
a hand-bill was prepared, and circulated in the district, setting
out the above-described offences, and the fines inflicted for
breaches of your Vestry's bye-laws with respect to registered
houses. As I pointed out, a still more severe penalty (which,
moreover, applies to houses in general,) was in reserve, should
overcrowding be again found, within three months, at either
of the houses in respect of which the proceedings were
instituted, viz.: closure of the house, under the provisions of
section 7 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, which
enacts that:—
"Where two convictions for offences relating to the overcrowding of a
house, or part of a house, in any district have taken place within a
period of three months (whether the person convicted were or were
not the same), a petty sessional court may, on the application of the
sanitary authority, order the house to be closed for such period as the
court may deem necessary."
The business of letting so-called "furnished" rooms in the
"Notting dale" district is a profitable one, the "keeper"
probably netting thirty shillings a week for a house which
costs him twelve or fourteen, the value of the "furniture" being
a negligeable quantity. I therefore advised, and the Sanitary
Committee directed, that on occasion arising, the magistrates
should be asked to close the house, such a course being likely