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57
strict compliance with the provisions of the law. In several of the
worst cases proceedings were taken for breaches of the regulations,
and penalties ranging from £3 to £5 were imposed.
LICENSED COWSHEDS.
The licensed cowsheds are 26 in number, 18 north and 8 south of
Uxbridge Road, (vide Table XII, Appendix). In my last annual
report, having already in previous reports enlarged on the reasons for
placing cowsheds and dairies under regulation by bye-laws, I referred
to the progress that had been made, and more particularly to the powers
then lately conferred on the Privy Council by the "Contagious Diseases
(Animals) Act, 1878," (sec. 34), by which they are enabled to issue
Orders for the registration of cowsheds and dairies, and for a variety of
purposes in connection therewith.
The probability that the cowsheds (and dairies) would soon be made
subject to regulations gave an increased interest to the annual inspection
of the licensed premises, to which your Vestry's Works, Sanitary, and
General Purposes Committee devoted great attention at numerous
meetings, both prior to the licensing day and subsequently,—several
cases having been adjourned for the completion of necessary sanitary
improvements.
Your Committee reported in substance as follows:—
"In view of the probability that ere long Bye-Laws may be framed by the
Local Authority under the above mentioned Act, your Committee have not thought
it desirable to recommend the adoption, at this time, of any active steps in furtherance
of those improvements of the cowsheds, which their former reports have
shown to be necessary, and which, year by year, have been in progress
"There is one point in connection with the cowsheds, however, which cannot
well be deferred any longer, viz., the question of cubic space, and it seems the
more necessary to deal with it now as the subject is not mentioned in the Act.
For several years your Vestry have required that in the case of premises newly
licensed for the keeping of cows, a minimun of 800 cubic feet per cow should be
provided, and the Justices have in every such case given effect to the views of your
Vestry by limiting the number of cows that may be kept. Your Vestry in May
last decided that the time had arrived when in the sanitary interests of the public
an equal amount of cubic space per head should be provided in all cowsheds, and
due notice of your Vestry's views was given to the several licensees: your
Committee therefore paid particular attention to the subject in the course of their
inspection. They found considerable variation in the amount of space actually
provided, not so much for the cows found on the several premises (for some of the
sheds were not half full), as in the provision made for a maximum number of cows
which might at any moment be stalled in the sheds. Having regard to this maximum
number, the amount of cubic space actually provided in one or two sheds
falls as low as from 300 to 400 cubic feet per cow.