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15
occupied as dwellings by separate families, have been cleared of their tenants. It is
in the cases of over-crowding and underground tenements that we have the most
frequent occasion to have recourse to legal proceedings at the Police Court.
9. I stated in my last Report that the licences for cow-houses in 1862 were in many
cases granted upon the understanding that the requsite amendments in their condition
were to be forthwith carried out. In some of these cases the necessary work
was honorably performed, but there were others in which nothing had been done up
to the time when the annual period of licensing recurred. Several slaughter houses
also, which had been licensed in former years, were in an unsatisfactory condition.
There were also several applications for licences both to newly established slaughter
houses and to new cow sheds. As respects the latter, the Magistrates had expressed a
determination to be more strict in their requirements than on occasion of the primary
licensing, and the proceedings of this year would thus necessarily form a precedent
for future years. I therefore laid before the Sanitary Committee my views upon the
subject, which constituted a basis on which they made their own determination upon
each case. All the new sheds and slaughter houses were visited by the Committee
as well as such of those already licensed as gave me dissatisfaction. All those which
were not satisfactory at the time of the Committee's visit were directed to be opposed,
but by the day appointed several of these had made the necessary alterations; in other
cases the licence was withheld until I had certified to the Magistrates that my requirements
had been fulfilled. Two of the Magistrates visited those whose licensing was
opposed by the "Vestry. Among the slaughter houses formerly licensed, the first refused
was that of Mr. Brooker, in Shepperton Street, on the ground of the frequent seizures
of diseased meat made during the year, indicating that the place was used for an improper
purpose; The renewal of Mr. Wace's licence for his slaughter house in Theberton
Street was refused on the ground that it had been made a public slaughter house and
had become a nuisance to the neighbourhood. The only cow house for which a
renewal of the licence was refused was that of Mr. Ellis, in Bryan Yale. It was a
most disgusting place, filthy, undrained and confined, and had during the whole
year been a source of great annoyance to the neighbours. In addition to these,
the licence was finally refused to one new cow house and two new slaughter houses,
which were quite unfit for the purpose. It has been necessary on three occasions to
take proceedings for slaughtering and cow-keeping without a licence. One was the
case of Mr. Roads, 1, City Terrace, Hornsey Road, who had refused to obtain a
licence at all. His cow shed was in excellent condition, but it was considered that the
supremacy of the law must be vindicated. He was fined 20s. and took out his licence
in a regular way at Michaelmas. Ellis, of Bryan Vale, having refused to remove his
cows on his licence not being renewed was also summonsed and convicted, the cow sheds
being finally abandoned. The third case was that of Mr. Filmer, who was summonsed
for slaughtering in a back kitchen or area, at 318, Caledonian Road, a place
for which a licence had been sought but refused. He was fined 20s.
10. Adulteration of Food. In the latter part of 18G2, I received several articles of
food for analysis, from a Society which had been established for the suppression of
food adulteration. These articles were bread, beer, gin and cocoa, in respect of
which I gave the needful certificate, but no action was taken by the Society. I have
also several times been applied to by individual parishioners to undertake analysis,