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see that the regulations are duly carried out, and to place whatever
information they may possess at the service of the court, leaving the
magistrates to act on such information at their discretion. It is the
duty of the "Vestry to oppose the license, if necessary on sanitary or
other grounds. Your committee refer to this admission because it
had been erroneously supposed that the "Nuisance Authority" had,
in some sort, been superceded by the Board in respect of the sanitary
supervision, &c., of cowsheds. The Vestry's powers, however, under
section 93 of the Metropolis Local Management Act, 1862, are in no
way modified by The Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878, nor by
"The Dairies, &c., Order," nor by the Regulations. That there has
been a misunderstanding on the part of some Nuisance Authorities
as to the relative position of the Board and of the Vestries, &c., is
obvious, for the Chelsea Vestry and the Fulham District Board of
Works were practically unrepresented at the special sessions, those
bodies confessedly having " left the whole matter in the hands of the
Board" in the belief that the regulations were intended to effect a
transference of jurisdiction. Even the Board, however, was not fully
prepared to deal with the cases, owing probably to an expectation
that the sessions would have been adjourned on their application.
"In their former report on the cowsheds (August 20th), your
Committee noticed with satisfaction that "the Local Authority had
fixed 800 cubic feet as the 'air space' necessary for each cow
lawfully kept in a cowshed," thereby endorsing, not without considerable
opposition from interested persons, the standard adopted by your
Vestry, and approved generally by scientific and sanitary authorities.
"In conformity with this "provision" of the regulations, the Board
intimated to the several licensees, in September, what number of cows
might lawfully be kept in each shed.
"On the 7th October, however, a deputation of cowkeepers waited
on the Special Purposes and Sanitary Committee of the Board to
urge the reduction of the required air space to 600 feet per cow, on
the ground that 800 feet was prohibitory and unnecessary: and the
Committee having at once come to the conclusion that while 800 feet
of air space for each animal should be the rule, 600 feet would be
sufficient in those sheds which, from their situation and construction,
have satisfactory means of ventilation, amended the "provision" in
accordance with this view. This regretable alteration, at later than