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37
to report what steps have been taken by their officers in regard
to them within one month. I may say with respect to this
important section of the Act, I have already had an interview
with the Factory Inspector of the Home Office, and arranged
a system of reporting periodically on these matters.
This, briefly, is a synopsis of the new Act as it refers to my
department. I do not think the dual control is the best
system which could be adopted for Factories and Workshops.
It is obvious, from the fact of occupiers being frequently visited
by the officers of separate authorities for different purposes, that
it will require an enormous amount of tact to prevent friction
and misunderstandings.
As will be seen from the table annexed (page 44), a large proportion
of the workshops are separate buildings, and they are situated
in the rear of dwelling-houses in most cases. When they
form part of a house it is usually the top floor which has been
adapted for the purpose of workrooms. It is a common
practice to rent a house ostensibly as a dwelling, and immediately
convert one or more of the rooms into a workshop.
Numerous instances of this have been brought to our notice.
The trades which are carried on in these places are almost
entirely tailoring, but the proportion of the boot and slipper
manufacturers is increasing, the employer and employees in
nine-tenths of the cases being aliens.
The number of workshops in our district has increased by
about 60 during the last two years. We have now 280 on our
register, exclusive of Laundries and Bakehouses, which have
during the last year been inspected and re-inspected; and
where any contravention of the 1891 Act was discovered, notices
were served by your inspectors, which had in every case the
effect of securing compliance with the law without recourse to
legal proceedings. The situation of the workshops was up to
the last few years almost exclusively confined to the West
Wards, but they are now beginning to appear in the East
Centre and North Wards.