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105
the regulations. Should difficulties arise, through unwillingness of
individuals to comply with the requirements, the intervention of
the Justices may be invoked with confidence, as it is in their power
to refuse the license, i.e., if they are not satisfied of the fitness of
a shed in a sanitary point of view, and should they feel unable to
impose the penalty for breach of the regulations. They have
repeatedly refused, at the request of a Sanitary Authority, to renew
a license until the Authority had notified the removal of defects
which had provoked opposition.
It may be mentioned that it is not lawful for any person to
begin to occupy any building as a cowshed without first giving one
month's notice in writing to the Local Authority of his intention
to do so, and he cannot so occcupy any building for the purpose of
a cowshed unless, and until, he first makes provision, to the
reasonable satisfaction of the Local Authority, for the lighting
and ventilation, including air space, and the cleansing, drainage,
and water supply, of the same, nor unless the lighting, ventilation,
&c., are such as are necessary and proper for the health and good
condition of the cattle therein.
THE DAIRIES, COWSHEDS AND MILKSHOPS
ORDER, 1879.
Eight thousand and three persons have been registered
under the "Order" in London to the end of 1880: of whom
1,044 were occupiers of licensed cowsheds, the remainder being
dairymen or milk sellers only.
It is a curious circumstance that the carrying out of so
important an Order should have been entrusted as a rule to bodies
which have no sanitary machinery. Thus in the Metropolis
(City excepted) the Metropolitan Board of Works is the "Local
Authority," and in the provinces the county magistrates, by
virtue of the provisions of the Contagious Diseases (Animals)
Act, 1878. The Board in London have delegated the duty of
inspection of cowsheds and dairies to a very limited number of