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The owner put the more immediately necessary cleansing in hand, and after
some difficulty got rid of the tenant, when the premises were cleansed throughout
and the other defects remedied.
INDUSTRIAL LAW INDEMNITY FUND.
A report of the working of this Fund has been received. It is formed to
protect women and young persons of both sexes who are dismissed from their
employment for giving truthful evidence to H.M. Inspectors of Factories and
Mines, Sanitary Inspectors and Shop Hours Inspectors.
Several typical cases are quoted which show that the Fund is administere
with discretion and that it does useful work in removing hardships which must
often arise in enforcing the provisions of the Factory and Workshop Act, and
other laws relating to industrial matters.
WORKPLACES (Kitchens).
Twelve new kitchens have been inspected and two hundred and eightyseven
periodical inspections of those previously visited have been made.
The defects found may be grouped under three heads, viz.:—
(i.) Want of cleansing.
(ii.) Want of ventilation—
(a) Gas stoves in kitchens without any effectual means of
carrying off the injurious products of combustion.
(b) Kitchens otherwise badly ventilated.
(iii.) Sanitary conveniences not properly cut off from direct
communication with the kitchens or the rooms.
In several cases it was found that in order to enlarge the kitchen an
adjoining passage had been thrown into it, or some other structural alteration
had been made which resulted in establishing a direct communication between
the kitchen and the sanitary convenience.
The work needed to remedy the defects has necessitated three hundred and
ninety-one re-inspections, and is for the most part now completed.
DOMESTIC WORKSHOPS AND FACTORIES.
"Domestic Workshops" and "Domestic Factories" are places in which no
mechanical power is used, and in which the only persons employed are
members of the same family dwelling there; but when work is done only at
irregular intervals, and does not furnish the whole or the principal means of
living to the family, the place ceases to come under the provisions of the Act.
Places where the family are engaged either in straw plaiting, pillow lace
making, or glove making are also exempt.