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35
1919
any other noxious or offensive trade, business or manufacture.
Section 113 authorises any Urban Authority to make bye-laws
in order to prevent or diminish the noxious or injurious effects
thereof.
In relation to a trade other than those expressly mentioned
in the section, the question whether the materials and processes
are such as to constitute a noxious or offensive business or manufacture,
is one which will often be found to require careful consideration.
Broadly speaking as a result of legal decisions,
in seeking the analogy between a particular trade and those specified
in Section 112 of the Public Health Act, 1875, the Council
must prove the identity or similarity of the materials used in the
process. If a trade can be shown to involve the collection of large
quantities of animal matter, which without anything being done
to them, must be or by process of time must necessarily become a
nuisance, it is probable that the terms of Section 112 will be found
sufficiently comprehensive to include such a trade.
In districts where the Public Health Amendment Act,
1907, has been adopted, a much wider interpretation can be given
to an offensive trade. Section 51 of that Act provides that the
words " any other trade, business or manufacture, which the
local authority declare, by order confirmed by the Local Government
Board, and published in such a manner as the Board direct,
to be an offensive trade," shall be substituted for the words " any
other noxious or offensive trade, business or manufacture," in
Section 112 of the Public Health Act, 1875.
Under the 1907 Act, there would be no question of the
materials used, whether they be of animal origin or not; if the
Local Government Board confirmed the decision of the local
authority any trade which would give rise to a nuisance, could be
scheduled as an offensive trade.
But a difficulty would arise in the manner of enforcement
of any bye-law made by the Council. Under the Factory and
Workshops Act, 1901, Workshops are under the control of the
local authorities and factories are supervised by the Home Office
Inspectors. This, of course would be without prejudice to the
Council's powers under the Public Health Acts, and presumably,
if the Council made bye-laws which applied to factories, it would
also have some power to enforce those bye-laws.