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103
(Metropolitan Board of Works) should have recognised a low
standard of air space—viz., 600 cubic feet per cow—in certain
exceptional cases, they noted with satisfaction that the magistrates
in the Kensington Division had in nearly every instance insisted
on the full minimum of 800 cubic feet per cow in Kensington cowsheds,
moved thereto by their conviction of the reasonableness of
your Vestry's views, which had been brought under their notice
from time to time. The Bench had for several years adopted the
800 cubic feet standard in the case of all sheds newly licensed in
Kensington, and at the Sessions in October, 1879, they announced
that the cases dealt with exceptionally on that occasion would be
brought under the general rule in 1880. It affords me much satisfaction
to report that, not only did the magistrates give effect to
this their decision in respect of Kensington cowsheds, but that they
also extended the rule over the entire Division, which includes the
parishes of Fulham, Hammersmith, and Chelsea. Instead of
granting a license, as heretofore, for such a number of cows as the
proprietor of the premises desired to keep, or as the "Local
Authority," or the Vestry, or the District Board of Works might be
pleased to approve, the magistrates ascertained the cubical contents
of each shed, and dividing this total by 800, arrived at the proper
number of cows for which the shed should be licensed, and marked
that number on the license. The important question of cubic or
air space may now, therefore, be considered settled, so far as this
Division is concerned, and it can hardly be doubted that the
example set by the magistrates here will sooner or later (and the
sooner the better) be followed in all the other Divisions of this
great metropolis.
Present Requirements.— Many alterations and improvements
are still necessary at some of the cowsheds to bring the structural
condition of them into conformity with the provisions of the byelaws.
The most serious question, and one that your Vestry have
hitherto left in the hands of the Board, relates to the paving of the
sheds. The seventh "provision" of the regulations requires that
''every cowshed shall be well paved with Stourbridge or other impervious
brick, or other impervious material, set with cement, properly
bedded on concrete, with a proper slope towards a gulley-hole," and
it must be said that with a very few exceptions, this "provision" has