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83
FACTORY AND WORKSHOP ACTS, 1878 to 1895.
Duties of the Sanitary Authoritiy with Respect
to workshops.—The duties devolving upon the Sanitary
Authority under the Factory Acts were set out in considerable
detail in the annual report for 1896 (pp. 97-103 inclusive).
Reference thereto will suffice to show how serious are the
responsibilities which the legislature has imposed on sanitary
authorities throughout the kingdom. An effort to cope with
these responsibilities was made by your Vestry, in October,
1893, by the appointment of two ladies as inspectors of
workshops, workplaces, and laundries, where women are
employed. Both of these ladies, Miss Deane and Miss Squire,
have since been appointed, by successive Secretaries of State,
to the even more responsible position of factory inspector
under the Home Office. Miss Deane's successor, Miss
Duncan, who ceased to hold office in July, 1895, has since
been appointed to the office of factory inspector by the
Government of New South Wales. The appointment held by
her in this parish has not been filled. Miss Squire's successor,
Miss de Chaumont, does her best to carry out the work of
inspection and supervision for the entire parish. Her report
for the year is subjoined (page 86).
With respect to the workshops, &c., where men only are
employed, nothing has been done to give effect to legislation
in any way comparable with the work so well carried out by
the female inspectors of workshops, etc., where women are
employed. These establishments should be taken in hand,
but it is impossible with the present limited and reduced staff
of sanitary inspectors. We do not so much as know, at
present, the localities of any large proportion of men's workshops,
but no doubt their whereabouts could be ascertained from
Her Majesty's Superintending Inspector of Workshops, &c.,
should it ever be put in my power to take up this branch of
sanitary administration.