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29
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.
The cases in which it was found necessary to have recourse
to the Police Court to enforce the orders of your Vestry
were fifty-eight, but with a few exceptions, not important.
Convictions for various offences under the Slaughter-houses Act,
viz., for disobedience of the bye-laws, have been obtained in
several cases, but the object of legislation (which was to improve
the slaughter-houses by stringent bye-laws strictly enforced) has
to some extent been defeated by the course adopted by the
magistrates, who have reduced a substantial penalty of three
pounds to a nominal one of a shilling in every case, excepting one,
when 10s. was the amount. I do not presume to question their
power to do this, but I may mention that the penalty of five
pounds originally proposed by the " local authority," was altered
to three pounds on a representation by the Local Government
Board of the opinion of the law officers of the Crown, that the
penalty, whatever its amount, would not be subject to reduction
at the discretion of the magistrates. It would be well to have
this point cleared up without delay. In order to deprive the
butchers and their employes of any excuse for breach of the byelaws
your Vestry have gone to the expense of printing them and
mounting them on boards, placing a copy at the disposal of each
licensee for suspension in the slaughter-house.
A butcher, at Kensal-green, was fined in the mitigated penalty
of twenty shillings for slaughtering cattle on his unlicensed
premises.
NUISANCE FROM BOILING OFFAL FOR THE FOOD
OF SWINE.
Complaints of nuisance from this cause being rife, proceedings
were directed by your Vestry to be taken against Mr. F. N. Squire,
of Tobin Street, who carries on the business on a large scale. The
magistrate adjourned the case for eight weeks in order to enable
Mr. Squire "to adopt the best practicable means for abating
the nuisance." Mr. Squire went to a considerable expense in
doing this, and I hope he has succeeded. At any rate I do
not think there is much risk of annoyance from his business
of boiling offal (in addition to the business of a tut melter) provided
great care is taken to conduct the boiling with all necessary
precautions to avoid the escape of offensive vapours. But what
was quite practicable in Mr. Squire's case may not be so easy for
the poor persons who carry on the same business in the locality
without any means of preventing nuisance. Complaints are still
heard, occasionally, even though the boiling is generally done late
in the evening or early in the morning. It is surprising at what
a distance the offensive effluvia are perceptible. In certain states
of the wind they are quite apparent near St. John's Church,
Notting Hill, and have been supposed to be due to gases from sewer
ventilators or street gullies. The business being to all intents and