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118
attention is now given to the underground drain. A certain
number of drains suspected to be defective, were tested with
smoke,generally with a negative result. The hydraulic test
could not be applied without opening up the drain, and this was
not done save in rare and exceptional cases. By another resolution,
the supervision of the work of trapping and reparation
of underground drains was transferred from the Inspectors to
the Surveyor.* In the course of the year many drains were,
as usual, reconstructed by the owners or occupiers of houses,
without sanitary notices having been issued, on the deposit of
plans submitted for the approval of your Vestry. Particulars
under this head will be found in the report of the Surveyor.
OFFENSIVE BUSINESSES.
The only business coming under the statutory description
" offensive," other than that of a slaughterer of cattle, carried
on in this parish, is that of a Fat Extractor, at Tobin Street,
in the Potteries, Notting Dale. The conduct of this business
gives rise to more or less effluvium nuisance, despite improved
arrangements, and care on the part of the proprietor, and supervision
by your Vestry's Inspector, as well as by the Inspector
of the London County Council.
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 often to offensive smells; and it has been held
by the Appeal Court to be ejusdem generis with the businesses
* The report on the subject by the Sanitary Committee, which was
adopted by the Vestry was to the following effect:—" That all works of
repair or alteration to the underground drains of any premises be supervised
by the Surveyor's Department, provided that this instruction shall not apply
to such works of repair or alteration as the fixinsr of gullies or drain inlets
apart from other underground work." The Surveyor's staff also supervise
the work of ventilation of drains.