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84
The question has been asked, whether your Vestry, by
appointing special officers to inspect workshops, laundries, &c.,
were not interfering with duties legally attaching to the office
of factory inspector? The answer to this question is distinctly
negative. There is nothing conflicting in the duties of factory
inspectors and of inspectors appointed by the sanitary authority:
the duties of the respective offices are reciprocal. One of the.
duties devolving upon the medical officer of health under the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891 (sec. 27), is to "give written
notice to the factory inspector" of "any child, young person,
or woman employed in a workshop," and this I have done,
since October, 1893, in a large number of instances, upon information
acquired for me by the lady inspectors. I report,
moreover, to Her Majesty's Superintending Inspector of Workshops,
&c., every workshop and workplace newly opened, or
discovered by the inspector; and, reciprocally, that gentleman
forwards to me all notices he receives from persons intimating
intention to occupy premises as workshops or workplaces.
In like manner the Superintending Inspector reports to
me all cases of overcrowding discovered by his assistants,
and all cases of dirty and insanitary premises observed by
those officers, and requiring to be dealt with under the Acts;
it being the duty of the sanitary authority to take steps to
secure the abatement of all such nuisances. The necessary
steps have been taken in many instances (since October, 1893,)
by the Sanitary Committee, to which your Vestry have
entrusted the carrying out of the provisions of the Factory
and Workshop Acts, 1878 to 1895, and the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891. And to facilitate the discharge of these
duties the legislature has conferred on the sanitary authority
and their officers "all such powers of entry, inspection, taking
legal proceedings, or otherwise," as a factory inspector has
under the "principal Act," i.e., the Act of 1878. The powers
of the sanitary authority in regard to the inspection and
supervision of workshops, in order to the enforcement of the