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attention to Section 24 of the Public Health Act. This Section
states that such furnaces "must be constructed as far as
practicable to consume their own smoke, and any chimney,
not being the chimney of a private dwelling house, sending
forth black smoke in such quantity as to be a nuisance, shall
be a nuisance liable to be dealt with summarily under the Act."
This circular was sent to all the bakehouses, slaughterhouses,
and other places where trade processes are carried on.
97. Registration of houses let to two or more families.—At the
beginning of the year twenty houses were on the register.
During the year I recommended the registration of 16, and the
Committee ordered 13 of these to be registered, most of them
being at Abbey Wood. Nearly all were on receipt of the
notice reduced to occupation by one family, and others have
been taken off the register for the same reason. There
remained on the register at the close of the year 18 houses.
98. Under the present condition of things in Plumstead,
one may say that the bye-laws for houses let in lodgings, as
drafted, are practically useless, I mean that as long as it is
necessary to go through the process of registration before the
bye-laws apply to any house, the bye-laws will remain a dead
letter, for the simple reason that a prejudice exists among
landlords against registration, and they prefer to turn out the
tenants and let to someone who promises not to sublet, which
they usually have no difficulty in doing.
99. But there is no reason why the bye-laws should not be
drafted, as indeed they are in many parts of London, so that
they shall apply to all houses below a certain rental occupied
by more than one family, whether they are registered or not.
There are probably 500 houses in Plumstead which ought to
bo under the bye-laws.