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74
sheds in July. They noticed improvements in many of the sheds,
consequent on the carrying out of the requirements of your Vestry,
made known in the previous year; and in their report they expressed
a hope that through the operation of the regulations, further improvements
would be effected. The Board had then recently appointed
inspectors of cowsheds, and the officer for the district being engaged
in making a preliminary inspection, the Committee out of courtesy
to the Board, preferred to await the result of such inspection before
taking any steps to carry out the provisions of the regulations in
respect of structural alterations.
In my tenth report, for 1879 (Oct. 15, page 68), I had to state that
in several of the sheds the requirements of the Board had not been
attended to; nothing in fact had been done to bring the premises into
conformity with the regulations.
In these circumstances the day for the renewal of licenses came
round, with what results may be best explained in the words of the
committee reporting their proceedings:—
"An application," they stated, "was made by the representative of the
"Local Authority" (Metropolitan Board of Works) for an adjournment
over a period of two months, of all the cases in the Division (which
includes Chelsea, Hammersmith, and Fulham, as well as Kensington)
to enable the licensees to comply with the requirements of the Local
Authority, as set out in the " regulations " framed under " The
Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milkshops Order of July, 1879," prior to the
renewal of the licenses. It was stated that an adjournment had been
granted on the application of the Board in other Divisions.
" The Justices, however, taking the view that the business of a cowkeeper
could not be lawfully carried on without a license, and that
the penalty for breach of the regulations was heavy enough to ensure
due compliance with them by the cowkeepers, declined to accede to
the application.
"A question having arisen as to the relative position of the Board
and the "Nuisance Authority " in respect of the cowsheds, under the
regulations, it was stated that the Local Authority occupy a similar
position in respect of the licensing of cowsheds, to that occupied by
the police in respect of the licensing of public-houses. The Board
have no power to oppose the renewal of a license, their duty being to