View report page

17
In the spring of the present year (February, 1879)
an order was made by the Privy Council appointing the
Metropolitan Board of Works the local authority for
making regulations for the carrying out of these purposes.
This was promptly done, and the regulations are now
before us. The difficulties in the way of applying anything
like satisfactory regulations to premises already
in occupation without pulling down and rebuilding the
same, are in many cases unsurmountable, and we felt
puzzled how such an order was to be put in force. We
were hardly prepared, however, for the news recently
published as follows:—
An order has been made by the Privy Council, dated the
9th July, that the Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milk Shops Order
of 1879, and the amendment of the same date, are revoked;
and stating that "it shall not be lawful for any person following
the trade of cowkeeper or dairyman to begin to occupy as a dairy
or cowshed any building not so occupied at the making of this
order until he first makes provision, to the reasonable satisfaction
of the local authority, for the lighting and the ventilation, including
air space, and the cleansing drainage, and water supply of the
same while occupied as a dairy or cowshed." It will also be necessary
to give one month's notice in writing to the local authority of
the intention to occupy any such building.
This leaves the matter, as far as the present premises
are concerned, in statu quo. However, some good has
been done by the definition in the regulations referred to
of the demands of sanitary science regarding the control
of the milk traffic. In one particular—that of the proximity
of other buildings—the order is faulty, and in some
parts there is too much vagueness to be of much practical
use. Still, on the whole it is satisfactory. The
regulation, or better still, the abolition, in crowded
localities, of piggeries, is a question of great importance;
but the British legislature has always been distinguished
for such an intense respect for even the phantom of a
"vested right'' that we may wait long enough for this
B