View report page

81
The Cleansing of Persons Act, 1897, empowers the Borough Council to expend
money in providing a cleansing station. The General Powers Act, 1904,
enables the Borough Council to deal with the homes. The General Powers Act,
1907, confers compulsory powers on the County Council for the removal of
verminous school children and verminous inmates of common lodging houses
to cleansing stations. The Children Act, 1908, enlarges the powers with
regard to school children, and compels the Borough Council to permit the use
of their cleansing station by the local education authority for the cleansing of
school children upon an agreed payment.
On the 20th May, 1912, an agreement was entered into with the London
County Council, renewable at the end of one year upon terms, for the cleansing
of verminous school children who may be sent by the County Council to this
Authority's Cleansing Station upon a payment of 2s. in respect of each child,
to cover a period of one calendar month from the date upon which the
tirst cleansing takes place irrespective of the number of baths required before
the child could be regarded as cleansed. Up to the 31st March, 1913, the sum
of £84 12s. 0d. has been received from the County Council.
On the 3rd July, 1912, your Council informed the County Council, in
answer to their enquiry, whether it would be possible for arrangements to be
made whereby verminous children attending schools within a mile radius of
the Station may be cleansed, that so far as possible, after the children residing
in the Borough and those attending schools in the Borough had been cleansed,
this Authority were prepared to cleanse verminous children attending schools
outside the Borough within a radius of one mile of the Station upon payment
of 1s. per attendance.
Subsequently a reply was received from the Education Officer of the London
County Council stating that the Committee of the County Council who had
considered the subject were advised that the agreement entered into between
the two Authorities required the Borough Council to cleanse any school children
who may be sent to such Station by the County Council upon payment of 2s.
in respect of each child to cover a period of one calendar month, provided that
they were in attendance at public elementary schools maintained by the County
Council, and hoping that the Borough Council would raise no objection to
cleansing, at the rate referred to in the Agreement, all school children
requiring such treatment who attended schools within a mile radius of the
Station.
In regard to this further communication your Council pointed out that
the agreement between the Borough Council and the County Council never
contemplated the question of cleansing children from outside the Borough. It
was obvious that the interpretation placed upon the agreement by the County
Council's Committee would entitle the County Council to send all the school
children in London to the St. Pancras Cleansing Station, which would be
unreasonable, and, therefore, could never have been intended by either party.
This new interpretation arose since the County Council gave instructions to
limit the cleansing area to within a radius of a mile from the Station. In
further proof of the fact that children outside St. Pancras were never intended
to be included in the original agreement, the arrangement shortly afterwards