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85
FACTORY AND WORKSHOP ACTS.
Duties ok the Sanitary Authority 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 vvith
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 88.
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 workplaces 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 the workshops. No doubt,
however, their whereabouts could be ascertained from Her
Majesty's Superintending Inspector of Workshops, &c., were
it, at any time, put in my power to take up this branch of
sanitary administration.