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126
miittee was, in January, 1895, instructed to prepare a Bill
amending the law relating to bakehouses in London, in
accordance with the Council's views; but no action appears
to have been taken. One provision with reference to bakehouses
is contained in the Factory and Workshop Act, 1895,
in section 27 (3), to the effect that " a place underground
shall not be used as a bakehouse unless it is so used at the
commencement of this Act," i.e., at the beginning of the year,
1896. The value of this provision has been reduced almost to
the vanishing point by magisterial rulings, that the disuse of
an underground bakehouse subsequent to the 1st January,
1896, as by the premises becoming empty, does not prevent
the use of them for the purposes of a bakehouse, however
unsuitable in character they may be, upon the premises being
re-occupied. A drafting amendment of the terms of the section
is necessary to give effect to what may be assumed to have
been the intention of the legislature, viz., that underground
bakehouses vacant on, or vacated at any time after, January 1st,
1896, should not be again used for the purposes of the
business.
OFFENSIVE STREET SMELLS.
I had occasion in 1895 to refer to the frequency of complaints,
during the hot weather, of offensive smells arising from
street gullies, sewer ventilating gratings, wood-paved roads, etc.
I regret to have had to refer again to the subject in 1896. In
the former year the Sanitary Committee recommended, with
reference to these complaints—
" That looking to the long-continued drought, and to the complaints"
(which have been received relative to the offensive smells from
gullies and wood-paved roads) " the Wharves and Plant Committee be
requested to instruct the Surveyor to take all necessary steps for a
more frequent cleansing of the gullies and wood-paved roads in this
parish."