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33
Provided that with respect to any building existing and in use
as a tenement house at the passing of this Act this section shall
not (a) come into operation until the first day of January one
thousand nine hundred and eight, or (b) apply where the only
storey or storeys on which a proper and sufficient supply of
water is not provided is or are a storey or storeys (i) constructed
at a height exceeding that to which the Metropolitan Water
Board may for the time being be required to furnish a supply
of water for domestic purposes and (II) to which a supply of
water for such purposes is not at the passing of this Act being
furnished by the said board by agreement:
Provided also that this section shall not apply to any tenement
house in respect of which it can be shown that any such
provision for the supply of water as aforesaid is not reasonably
necessary."
FACTORY & WORKSHOPS ACTS.
In the following tabular statement, which may be supplemented
by a reference to the reports of Miss Baker, Miss Limont, Miss
Johnson, and Mr. Phillips, certain details required by the Home
Secretary are given.
The workplaces inspected have all practically been the
kitchens of Hotels, Restaurants, Coffee-shops, etc. Factories
and workshops have, speaking generally, only been inspected
on the receipt of intimations from the Home Office relating to
conditions requiring the intervention of the Health Department.
The Outworkers in this Borough are very numerous, and it
is quite impossible with the present staff to inspect their workrooms
even once a year. The same remark applies to the
workshops which number over three thousand. It is hoped in a
short time, however, to considerably improve upon this.
Roughly speaking two-thirds of the Registered Workshops
have been visited during the year, and one-third of the outworkers.
That is to say at present the department is only
visiting and inspecting the workshops at the rate of once
every eighteen months, and the outworkers (who are the frailest
section of the working community) at the rate of once every
three years. This is surely in want of radical improvement.