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96
Duties of the Sanitary Authority with respect
to Workshops.—The question litis been sometimes asked,
whether your Vestry, by appointing special officers to
inspect workshops, workplaces, laundries, etc., were not interfering
with duties legally attaching to the office of the factory
inspectors appointed by the Secretary of State? The answer
to this question is distinctly negative. There is nothing conflicting
in the duties of factory inspectors and those devolving
upon the Inspectors of the Sanitary Authority. The duties of
the respective offices are reciprocal. One of the duties devolving
upon the Medical Officer of Health under the Public
Health (London) Act, 1891 (sec. 27), is to give "written notice
to the factory inspector" of "any child, young person, or woman
employed in a workshop," and this duty I have discharged,
since October, 1893, in a large number of instances, upon
information acquired for ine by the women inspectors. I
report, moreover, to Her Majesty's Superintending Inspector of
workshops, &c., every workshop and workplace newlyopened, or
discovered by the inspector; and, reciprocally, that gentleman
forwards to me all notices he receives from persons intimating
intention to occupy premises as workshops or workplaces.
In like manner the Superintending Inspector reports
to me all cases of overcrowding discovered by his assistants,
and all cases of dirty and insanitary premises, observed by
those officers, requiring to be dealt with under the Acts; it
being the duty of the Sanitary Authority to take steps to
secure the abatement of all such nuisances. The necessary
steps have been taken in many instances (since October, 1893)
by the Sanitary Committee, to which your Vestry have
entrusted the carrying out of the provisions of the Factory
and Workshop Acts, 1878 to 1895, and the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891; all of which entail responsible duties,
in regard to workshops and workplaces, upon your Vestry as
the Sanitary Authority. And to facilitate the discharge of
these duties the law has conferred on the Sanitary Authority
and their officers "all such powers of entry, inspection, taking