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87
vision of workshops, in order to the enforcement of the law,
would thus appear to be ample. But lest these powers should
be allowed to fall into desuetude, or be wilfully neglected,
power is given, by sections 1 and 2 of the Factory and Workshop
Act, 1891, which enables the factory inspector to supersede
a defaulting Authority in the execution of their duties in
respect of workshops or laundries; and to recover from the
Authority, in whose district the workshops or laundries are
situated, "all such expenses in and about any proceedings
. . . . as he may incur."
Work of the Lady Inspector of Workshops, Etc.:
Annual Report.—I have received from Miss de Chaumont
the subjoined report with respect to the duties carried out
by her, in 1897, as inspector of workshops, workplaces, and
laundries where women are employed. In connection therewith
I may be permitted to observe that the initiative of your
Vestry, in 1893, is being followed up by other sanitary
authorities, both in town and in the provinces, several of
which now avail themselves of the assistance of women in the
work of sanitary administration. There is good ground for
hoping that the practice will, in course of time, become much
more general. As to the value and success of the movement in
this parish there can be no question: it has long since passed
out of the experimental stage. I wish it were possible to give
effect to the requirements of the Acts in relation to workshops,
etc., where men are employed. The obligations devolving upon
the Sanitary Authority in this department of administrative
work, were set out in a report adopted by the Sanitary Committee,and
printed in the annual report of the Medical Officer of
Health for 1896(pages 96-103 inclusive)which was accepted by
your Vestry as a correct statement of the powers and duties of
the sanitary authority.
In the final report by Miss Squire it was stated, and it is
a matter for satisfaction, that there had become manifest, on
the part of employers, an increasing willingness to conform
to the requirements of the law, with which many of them had
been more or less unacquainted, until they were made known