View report page

55
Legal Proceedings.—In 45 cases proceedings were taken before the magistrates: in
13 instances for offences under the bye-laws for registered houses; fines to the aggregate amount
of £7 5s. being imposed. Fines were inflicted in other cases as follows :—For failure to periodically
remove manure, in six cases, the fines amounting to £11 13s.; in one case of unsound food, 10s.;
in one case for failure to comply with the magistrates' orders, £3; in four cases for non-compliance
with Vestry's notices, £2, £3, £1, and 10s.; in one case for removing offensive matter during
prohibited hours, £1; and in one case for failing to provide a proper receptacle for manure, £2. The
fines in all amounted to £31 18s.
Neglect of the notices of the sanitary authority is somewhat common, the result being that
the time of the inspectors is wasted in fruitless visits to premises. In every such case—as when
the work has not been put in hand at a date when it should have been completed—application for
the fine prescribed by section 4(4) of the Act of 1891 should be made: disobedience to notices
leads to waste of the officers' time, and is also disrespectful to the sanitary authority.
Offensive Businesses.—The only business coming under the statutory description
" offensive," other than that of a slaughterer of cattle, carried on in the borough, is that of a Fat
Extractor, at Tobin-street, in the Potteries, Notting-dale. The conduct of this business still gives
rise to more or less effluvium nuisance at times, despite improved arrangements, care on the part
of the proprietor, and supervision by the Council's inspector, as well as by the inspector of the
County Council. The improvements carried out consequent on proceedings instituted by the
County Council in 1899, included the provision of a scour, or condensing apparatus, and elevation
of the chimney shaft. Complaints have been less frequent since these works were completed.
Fried-Fish Shop Nuisance.—In connection with proposed amendments to the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891, already mentioned, the sanitary committee of the late Vestry, in a
special report, expressed the opinion that the business of a fried-fish seller should be added to
the list of the businesses specified in section 19; this being the only means of bringing about the
regulation of the conduct of the business, so as to prevent it from being an annoyance to adjoining
occupiers. The business gives rise to nuisance when carelessly carried on, and without necessary
precautions to prevent escape of effluvia, and it is a not infrequent subject of complaint; decided
cases, moreover, class it as an "offensive business." The latest of such cases, Duke of Devonshire
v. Brooksliaw, was tried, in 1899, in the Chancery Division, by Mr. Justice Kekewich, the
plaintiff claiming an injunction to restrain the defendant from carrying on, at Eastbourne, the
business of a fried-fish seller, or using the house for the business of a fried-fish seller, in breach of a
covenant not to carry on any offensive trade or business on the premises. The business, it appeared,
had been carried on since 1887, and in 1892 the Corporation took proceedings, but discontinued
them on certain alterations being made. The defendant relied on laches and acquiescence on
behalf of the plaintiff; but the judge decided that there had been a breach of the covenant, in
the original conveyance, not to carry on an offensive trade or business, and granted an injunction.
Marine Stores.—The business of a marine store dealer is not scheduled in the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891, as an offensive business, but it gives rise to offensive smells, and has
been held by the Appeal Court to be ejusdem generis with the businesses scheduled, originally,
in the (now repealed) Slaughter-houses (Metropolis) Act, 1874. Acting upon my representations,
the late Vestry made application to the late Metropolitan Board of Works in 1883, and subsequently,
to schedule the business under that Act, but without success. And in 1896, upon receipt of
complaints of nuisance arising in the conduct of the business, an application was made to the
County Council to schedule the business under the provisions of section 19 of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891. This application, likewise, was unsuccessful. The subject was dealt with
fully in my annual report for 1896—pages 119-123. 1 have only to add that the premises where
the business is carried on are regularly visited by the several sanitary inspectors.