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be employed in any handicraft on Sunday, or after two o'clock on Saturday
afternoon, except in cases where not more than five persons are employed in
the same establishment, and where such employment consists in making
articles to be sold by retail on the premises, or in repairing articles of a like
nature to those sold by retail on the premises. (5). No child under the age
of eleven years shall be employed in grinding in the metal trades, or in
fustian cutting.
If any child, young person, or woman is employed in contravention of
this Act, the occupier of the workshop shall be liable to a penalty of Three
Pounds, and the parent of, or the person deriving any direct benefit from the
labour, or having the control over the child, young person, or woman, shall
also be liable to a penalty of Twenty Shillings.
The local authority for enforcing the provisions of this Act in St.
Pancras is the Yestry of that Parish. If, on the complaint of your Officer of
Health, or Inspector of Nuisances, it appears to any Justice that there is
reasonable cause for believing that any of the provisions of this Act, or of
the Sanitary Act, 1866, are contravened in any workshop, it shall be lawful
for such Justice to empower the complainant to enter into such workshop
at any time within forty-eight hours, and to examine such workshop; and
any person so empowered may examine any person whom he finds in such
workshop on matters within the provisions of this Act, or of the Sanitary
Act, 1866.
There is no doubt that there are many workshops in this Parish in
which the provisions of these Acts are contravened, and when the public
generally are aware of the existence of these laws, your officers will probably
often receive information which will render it necessary for them to take
proceedings under the Workshop Regulation Act. The provisions of the
Sanitary Act, which are specially referred to, are those referring to the
cleanliness of workshops, to their ventilation, and to overcrowding.
There are also a number of regulations in this Act, enforcing the at'
tendance at school of all children under thirteen years of age ; these regulations
are to be enforced by the Inspector of Factories.
The workshops to which this Act is applicable are those not specified in
the Factory Acts' Extension Act, and in which from five to fifty persons are
employed. The businesses which will especially require inspection are
milliners, tailors, shoe-makers, dress-makers, and wax-flower makers, and
many others. It will be advisable to issue hand-bills announcing to the
public the several provisions of the Act, and cautioning them against incurring
its penalties.