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mendation, to impose fines for the offence of failure to comply
with the requirements of sanitary notices issued under the provisions
of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891. In three of
these cases the fine was inflicted under the provisions of
section 4, sub-section (4), which reads as follows :—
" (4) When a notice has been served on a person under
this section, and either —
(a) The nuisance arose from the wilful act or default of
the said person ; or
(b) Such person makes default in complying with any of
the requisitions of the notice within the time specified,
he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding ten
pounds for each offence, whether any such nuisance
order, as in this Act mentioned, is or is not made
upon him."
Neglect of notices issued by the sanitary authority is but
too common, the result being that much of the time of the
inspectors is wasted in fruitless "re-inspections." In every
such case—as when the work has not been put in hand at a
date when it should have been completed—the appointed fine
should be applied for ; seeing that disobedience to notices not
only leads to waste of the officer's time, but is also disrespectful
to the sanitary authority. In connection with this subject
reference may be made to a power which has not been exercised
in this parish—though it has been, with good effect, in
some districts, and might be put in force with advantage in
all—that, namely, embodied in section 11 which is entituled
" Costs of execution of provisions relating to nuisances." It
reads as follows :—
"(1). All reasonable costs and expenses incurred in serving notice,
making a complaint, or obtaining a nuisance order, or in carrying
the order into effect, shall be deemed to be money paid for the
use and at the request of the person on whom it is made; or, if
the order is made on the sanitary authority, or if no order is made, but